Tether backs $150M plan to restore Drift user losses

Tether announced a recovery plan of up to $150 million to help restore balances for roughly 128,000 users of Drift Protocol after an April 1 exploit that drained about $285 million from the Solana-based trading platform. Tether committed $127.5 million of the total and said other partners will provide the remainder.

The recovery framework links repayments to Drift’s future trading revenue rather than a single upfront payout. Capital will be released in stages and tied to measurable platform activity: as trading volume and exchange revenue return, proceeds will go toward repaying affected users and funding operations. Tether did not provide a fixed timetable for full restoration.

Drift will relaunch using Tether’s USDT as its primary settlement asset, replacing USDC. The relaunch will bring more than 35 ecosystem teams, including Gauntlet, Neutral and M1, onto USDT and is expected to make Drift one of the larger USDT trading venues on Solana.

Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino described the company’s aim as restoring user confidence and supporting a strong relaunch, adding that the recovery structure aligns repayments with real platform activity and long-term growth. “The focus is on restoring user confidence and supporting a strong relaunch, with a structure that aligns recovery with real activity and long-term growth,” he wrote in the announcement.

Tether said the plan avoids relying solely on litigation or delayed treasury disbursements. Instead, revenue generated by Drift as it scales back up will contribute directly to restoring user positions. The company noted it works with more than 310 law enforcement agencies across 64 countries and has helped recover over $800 million connected to digital asset crime.

Tether did not set a timeline for the relaunch or for complete reimbursement, saying the recovery will progress alongside platform growth. The firm did not specify whether it will use the same model for other platforms in future security incidents.