The post Circle Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over $285M Drift Protocol Hack appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In brief Stablecoin issuer Circle is facing a class action lawsuit from Drift Protocol investors who lost money in a recent $280 million exploit of the DeFi protocol. The suit targets Circle’s handling of the exploit, alleging that hackers moved stolen USDC through the firm’s own cross-chain infrastructure. Circle has defended its actions, saying it only freezes assets when legally mandated to do so. USDC issuer Circle has been hit with a class action lawsuit from Drift Protocol investors who lost money during the April 1 exploit that saw $285 million drained from the the Solana DeFi platform. The suit, filed on April 14, accuses Circle Internet Financial of failing to freeze stolen funds during the exploit. The lawsuit centers on an eight-hour window during which attackers moved $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol. The hackers had exploited Drift Protocol through pre-signed administrative transfers using “durable nonces,” a legitimate Solana feature they weaponized weeks before the April 1 attack. Drift Protocol subsequently linked North Korean state-affiliated hackers to the attack, noting that they had infiltrated the company over the course of six months by posing as a quantitative trading firm. The incident prompted sharp criticism of Circle from within the crypto community, with blockchain investigator ZachXBT accusing the firm of having been “asleep,” during the Drift exploit, adding, “Why should crypto businesses continue to build on Circle when a project with 9 fig TVL could not get support during a major incident?” Why should crypto businesses continue to build on Circle when a project with 9 fig TVL could not get support during a major incident? pic.twitter.com/LkdDrp6qX8 — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 2, 2026 Circle maintains it acted appropriately within legal constraints. “Circle is a regulated company that complies with sanctions, law enforcement orders,…

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Filed under: News - @ April 18, 2026 4:18 am