Circle Faces Lawsuit After $280M Drift Protocol Hack

The company is accused of failing to freeze stolen funds in time.

Drift Investors sue Circle after $280M hack

17.04.2026 - 09:45

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2 min

Key points:

After the $280 million Drift Protocol hack, investors filed a class-action lawsuit against Circle.
The company is accused of failing to freeze stolen USDC despite having the ability to do so.

Circle is facing a class-action lawsuit from Drift Protocol investors who lost funds in the April 1 hack—one of the largest incidents in DeFi history.

The lawsuit, filed by law firm Gibbs Mura, alleges that Circle failed to act quickly to freeze stolen USDC, even though it had the technical capability.

According to the plaintiffs, the company could have intervened but chose not to.

Major Solana hack: Drift suspends operations

Here’s how the attack unfolded and where the funds were moved.

On-chain analyst ZachXBT also criticized Circle. He claims the company had roughly six hours to freeze the assets. During that time, the attacker reportedly moved over $230 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum.

The lawsuit also points out that Circle has previously frozen wallets in other cases, which, according to the plaintiffs, demonstrates its ability to act.

Debate Over Freezing Funds

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company operates strictly within the law and only freezes wallets upon requests from courts or law enforcement.

He warned that taking independent action without legal authorization could create serious risks and raise ethical concerns.

At the time of publication, Circle had not commented on the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Drift said it has received compensation offers, including up to $127.5 million from Tether and another $20 million from partners. The funds are expected to help cover user losses and support the platform’s recovery.

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