Key points

  • Eligible users receive one DFX token for each verified USDT lost in Drift's April 1 exploit, with allocations tied to the original affected wallet.
  • The recovery pool held about 3.1 million USDT at launch against a fixed supply of roughly 299.5 million DFX, producing an initial redemption rate near 0.0104 USDT per token.
  • Redeeming burns the DFX and is final, while future pool growth depends on protocol revenue, partner support and any recovered assets.

Drift has opened claims and redemptions for DFX, a recovery token assigned to users with verified losses from the decentralized exchange's April 1 exploit. The mechanism gives each eligible wallet one DFX for every USDT recorded as lost in the incident. Users can redeem the token against a recovery pool, sell it on a secondary market or hold it while additional funds are added. The launch pool, however, covers only a small fraction of the total verified claims, making the choice between immediate redemption and waiting central to the process.

How the claim process works

Drift says allocations are fixed by a loss snapshot and must initially be claimed from the wallet that controlled the affected account on April 1. The token is an SPL asset on Solana with a fixed supply of 299,500,810.998 DFX. Claims remain open until 00:00 UTC on January 1, 2028, after which unclaimed tokens are scheduled to be burned. A separate Insurance Fund claim is not part of the DFX allocation and follows its own terms.

Related reporting: NEAR Intents restores service after $3.8 million cross-chain exploit

A recovery pool of about 3.1 million USDT

At launch, Drift reported roughly 3.1 million USDT in the recovery pool. Dividing that balance by the outstanding token supply produced a redemption amount near 0.0104 USDT per DFX, or just over one cent for each dollar of verified loss. The Block and Unchained independently described the same starting economics. The dashboard can change as claims, redemptions and deposits occur, so the amount quoted by the portal at the time of a transaction is the operative figure.

Redeeming ends the token holder's claim

A redemption burns the selected DFX and pays USDT in the same Solana transaction. Drift says the operation is final: a user who redeems no longer participates through those burned tokens if more money later enters the pool. Holders may instead retain or transfer DFX. That does not guarantee a larger payout, because future additions depend on actual revenue, partner funding and asset recoveries. Drift explicitly describes its examples as mechanics rather than projections or promises.

Where future funding may come from

Velocity, the rebuilt exchange formerly known as Drift, is scheduled to contribute part of its daily net protocol revenue. The contribution rate is tiered: 60% of the first 30,000 USDT, 70% of revenue between 30,000 and 100,000 USDT, and 90% above 100,000 USDT. Drift also lists commitments of up to 127.5 million USDT from Tether and up to 20 million USDT from strategic partners, plus any funds recovered through freezes, bounties or law enforcement. Independent reporting noted that those partner commitments were not yet reflected in the launch pool.

What affected users should verify

The recovery structure turns a large unresolved loss into a transferable claim with an immediately available but limited redemption value. It does not represent full reimbursement at launch, and a secondary-market price may differ from the pool's redemption amount. Eligible users must use Drift's official claim portal and the wallet associated with the snapshot, while keeping enough SOL for network fees. Users should also verify portal addresses independently before connecting a wallet. The opening of claims is a concrete operational step, but the eventual recovery percentage remains uncertain and will depend on funds that actually reach the pool over time.

Sources

AI-generated editorial image; not a photograph of the reported event. Prepared with AI assistance and source verification.