Overview
- Drift Protocol investors filed a class action alleging Circle let roughly $230 million tied to the $280 million hack pass through its systems without a freeze.
- According to the complaint, the attacker moved funds from Solana to Ethereum over about eight hours using Circle’s Cross‑Chain Transfer Protocol, a tool that burns USDC on one chain and mints it on another.
- Plaintiffs argue Circle had the power to stop the flow, pointing to a recent freeze of 16 business wallets as evidence that it can act quickly when it chooses.
- The filing says some operators locked portions of the stolen assets while Circle kept processing related transfers, which plaintiffs say increased losses for users.
- Drift halted trading and paused deposits and withdrawals after the breach as its total value locked fell from about $550 million to under $250 million, and the suit could influence future rules on when issuers freeze tokens in live incidents.