ZachXBT Calls Out Circle Over $285M Drift Protocol Exploit Delay

Drift Protocol emerged as the center of attention after on-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly called out Circle for its response during an exploit that drained over $220 million, with some estimates reaching $285 million.

The remarks centered on delays in addressing large-scale movements of USDC linked from Solana to Ethereum during the incident. The exploit, which targeted the Solana-based perpetual futures decentralized exchange, led to market reactions and raised operational concerns across multiple platforms.

Drift Protocol Attack Triggers Losses and Price Decline

Drift Protocol confirmed in an X post that it was under attack and had suspended deposits and withdrawals. The platform stated it was working with security firms, bridges, and exchanges to resolve the situation. It also warned users to avoid depositing funds and proceed with caution.

On-chain records indicate that the initial transfer occurred at around 11:06 a.m., when 41M JLP tokens, worth 155M, were transferred out of the Drift Vault to a wallet. Other transfers ensued, with SOL, stablecoins, wrapped assets, and memecoins. These were then shared out among various wallets.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield estimated total losses could reach $285 million. Nevertheless, the exploit was not a result of a flaw in the smart contract. The report pointed out that administrative private keys were compromised. PeckShield founder Jiang Xuxian stated that the attacker gained access to the protocol.

The incident coincided with a decline in Drift’s native token price. At the time of writing, DRIFT was trading at $0.03998, marking a 42.18% decline within 24 hours. The token had traded near $0.069 before the sell-off. However, trading volume over the past 24 hours surged by 354.49% to $37.97 million, while market capitalization fell to $23.23 million.

ZachXBT Criticizes Circle Over Response Timing

Drift Protocol developments drew further attention after ZachXBT accused Circle of failing to act during the exploit. He claimed that millions of USDC were transferred between Solana and Ethereum via the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol within hours, with no intervention.

He further stated that the transfers were shipped during U.S. hours despite no action being taken. The complaints were preceded by earlier reports that Circle had frozen over 16 business hot wallets that were yet to be unfrozen. ZachXBT termed these measures imbalanced and questioned their effects. In addition, this follows a previous report by ZachXBT, who noted that bad actors were using US-Iran war panic to promote crypto scams targeting users.

Rising Hack Activity Adds Broader Context

The Drift Protocol incident occurred at a time when exploit activity was more prevalent in the crypto market. PeckShield reported around $52M in crypto hacks in March 2026, across about 20 incidents. This was an increase of 96 percent over February.

In addition, PeckShield also introduced the concept of shadow contagion. This refers to indirect effects where one exploit creates broader liquidity stress and bad debt across connected platforms.