Drift Attacker Uses Durable Nonces to Drain $285M; Circle Faces Freeze Backlash

Drift was exploited using Solana's durable nonces to pre-sign transactions.

Two misleading multisig approvals allowed the attacker to pre-sign transfers valid for over a week.

@coindesk

At least $270 million was drained from Drift.

The deadliest strike hit a girls' school in Minab, killing at least 153 children.

The attacker transferred $232 million using Circle's cross-chain protocol.

ZachXBT criticized Circle's inaction during a critical six-hour window.

@coindesk

Circle freezes assets only when legally required to avoid legal risk.

Tether froze some addresses within 90 minutes.

ZachXBT documented 15 cases totaling over $420 million where Circle took minimal action.

The Lazarus Group hack was cited as an example of delayed response.

Circle's shares plunged 40% over 120 days.

The incident raises questions about stablecoin issuer responsibilities.

Circle has the authority to blacklist but uses a reactive, order-driven model.

Tether paused its USDT0 protocol within 90 minutes of Drift.

AMBCrypto

Circle stayed hands-off during Drift but recently froze 16 unrelated wallets.

The inconsistency has raised trust questions.