Drift
Drift is a non-custodial, cross-margined perpetual futures and spot DEX on Solana, serving 200,000+ retail traders, institutional clients, and third-party developers via a hybrid vAMM/DLOB/JIT execution engine and Builder Codes integration layer.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2021
- HeadquartersSydney, Australia
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Drift does
Drift is a non-custodial, open-source decentralized exchange (DEX) built natively on Solana that offers cross-margined perpetual futures, spot trading, borrow/lend markets, prediction markets, and structured yield vaults under a unified account architecture. Its core execution engine combines a virtual Automated Market Maker (vAMM), a Decentralized Limit Order Book (DLOB), and Just-in-Time (JIT) Liquidity Auctions, with Drift v3 (December 2025) delivering 85% same-slot fills in ~400ms, 10x improved liquidity versus v2, and gasless trading via the Swift Protocol execution layer. The protocol is secured by Pyth Network 400ms price feeds, audited by Trail of Bits, OtterSec, and Neodyme, and is governed by a multi-pillar DAO via the DRIFT governance token launched in May 2024.
Drift Labs, the primary operating entity, serves 200,000+ retail traders, a cohort of institutional clients via a white-glove Drift Institutional service (early partners include Apollo and Securitize), and a network of liquidity providers, vault managers (Gauntlet, Neutral Trade, Elemental, Vectis, M1Capital), and third-party developers who integrate the protocol's execution via Drift Builder Codes. Revenue is generated transactionally through taker/maker fees (tiered by 30-day volume with DRIFT staking discounts), borrow/lend interest spreads, vault performance fees (20-30%), Builder Codes revenue share, and liquidation penalties. Cumulative trading volume reached $133B+ and TVL peaked at $1.5B by December 2025, when the protocol also surpassed $650M in open interest.
In April 2026, Drift suffered an approximately $280-295M exploit attributed by Mandiant to a North Korean state-affiliated threat group using a six-month social-engineering operation; the protocol suspended all core functions. Tether subsequently committed up to $147.5M as part of a recovery package, and Drift is relaunching as a perps-native exchange on a USDT settlement layer with a restructured multisig governance framework, two independent audits (OtterSec, Asymmetric), and a leaner product surface following the removal of Isolated Markets and Amplify. Total disclosed equity funding prior to the recovery package was $52.5M across a 2021 seed ($3.8M, Multicoin), 2023 Series A ($23.5M, Polychain), and 2024 Series B ($25M, Multicoin).
Drift firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Drift
- Legal name
- Drift Labs
- Website
- https://drift.trade
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2021
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Drift is a non-custodial, cross-margined perpetual futures and spot DEX on Solana, serving 200,000+ retail traders, institutional clients, and third-party developers via a hybrid vAMM/DLOB/JIT execution engine and Builder Codes integration layer.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Drift industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Decentralized Exchange (DeFi)
- NAICS
- Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321)
- SIC
- Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Perpetuals & Derivatives DEXs (FSADABAE)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Derivatives, Perpetuals & Options Protocols (FSADAMAC), Decentralized Derivatives (perps, options, futures, synthetics) (FSAPAEAC)
Keywords
Where Drift is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Sydney
- HQ country
- Australia
- HQ region
- Oceania
Offices1 record
Markets served
Drift business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Trading fees (taker + maker): Drift charges taker fees and pays maker rebates across all perpetual and spot markets. Volume-based tiered fee structure with staker discounts of up to 40% (effective August 5, 2025).
- Borrow/lend interest spread: Drift Earn powers multi-asset cross-collateral; all perpetuals trades are settled in USDC, with USDC automatically borrowed when non-USDC collateral is used. Interest spread between lenders and borrowers generates revenue.
- Vault performance fees: Vault managers may set custom performance fees, typically ranging from 20% to 30%, on the yield generated by vault strategies (hedged JLP, delta-neutral, borrow/lend, funding-rate).
- Builder Codes revenue share: Third-party developers integrating Drift's execution earn per-order fees through the RevenueShareEscrow. Builders collect fees for every trade routed through their application; settlement occurs when users settle their PnL.
- Liquidation fees: Drift operates an advanced liquidation engine that processes bankrupt positions; liquidation penalties contribute to revenue and the Insurance Fund.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Unified volume-based fee tiers across all perpetual markets with DRIFT staking discounts up to 40% |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Zero-Fee Markets limited-time campaign on BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP |
| Outcome Based/ Performance | Pay-as-you-go | Vault performance fees |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Zero borrow origination fee on Isolated Pools |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Amplify one-click recursive leverage borrowing rates |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels12 records
Drift product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Drift is a non-custodial, open-source decentralized exchange (DEX) built natively on Solana that offers cross-margined perpetual futures and spot trading across 100+ assets with up to 101x leverage on SOL, BTC and ETH perps. It pairs this core trading venue with an integrated suite of yield and structured-product modules (Drift Earn, Drift Vaults, Drift Safety Module, prediction markets) and a developer-facing Builder Codes program that lets third parties integrate Drift's execution layer.
Product overview
Drift is a single, unified DeFi Super Protocol on Solana, organised as a platform-plus-modules architecture. Its core is Drift Trade — a perpetual futures and spot exchange with cross-collateral, multi-asset margin and Swift Protocol execution — that anchors a broader suite of modules: Drift Earn (yield products spanning Borrow/Lend, Super Stake SOL, Insurance Fund Staking and Market Making Vaults), Drift Vaults (structured products from external teams), Amplify (one-click recursive yield), Isolated Pools (segregated risk borrow/lend), Pre-Launch Markets (speculative pre-TGE perps), Prediction Markets / BET, the Drift Safety Module, and a separate Drift Institutional service tier. The platform is extended externally via Drift Builder Codes (DBC) for third-party developers, CONNECT by Drift for EVM wallet access, and the Drift Mobile App for on-the-go trading. Drift additionally issues the DRIFT governance token, runs the FUEL points/Trader Program for users, and — following the April 2026 exploit — issues Recovery Tokens redeemable against a Tether-backed recovery pool ahead of the protocol's relaunch as the largest USDT-based perpetual exchange on Solana.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Drift v3: Performance upgrade of the Drift perpetuals trading platform launched in December 2025, delivering 10x faster fills and 10x improved liquidity.
- BET
- Drift Vaults
- Drift Earn
- Swift Protocol
- Amplify
- Drift Builder Codes (DBC)
- Drift Institutional
Products and services
- Drift Trade (Perpetual Futures & Spot Exchange) Core permissionless perpetual futures and spot exchange supporting 100+ assets with up to 101x leverage on SOL/BTC/ETH, multi-asset cross-collateral, subaccounts, custom per-market leverage and gasless execution via Swift Protocol.
- Drift Earn Unified yield suite that aggregates multi-asset borrow/lend, Super Stake SOL, Market Making Vaults and Insurance Fund Staking, allowing users to deploy idle capital across strategies earning up to roughly 16% APY (and higher in vaults).
- Drift Vaults On-chain structured products platform hosting 20+ yield strategies operated by external vault managers (Gauntlet, Neutral Trade, Elemental, Vectis, M1Capital), including hedged JLP, asset-specific hJLP, borrow/lend arbitrage and delta-neutral strategies with 10–110% APYs and 20–30% manager performance fees.
- Drift Institutional White-glove institutional service offering bespoke credit solutions, secure high-yield opportunities and compliance support for institutional-scale capital. Early partners include Apollo and Securitize.
- Drift Builder Codes (DBC) Per-order monetization layer for third-party developers integrating Drift's on-chain liquidity and execution; builders earn fees on every trade routed through their integration via a RevenueShareEscrow, settled when users settle PnL.
- Prediction Markets (BET) Capital-efficient prediction market product built on Drift's borrow/lend engine, covering events such as US elections, F1 races and the Super Bowl; allows users to earn yield on collateral while waiting for bets to mature.
- Drift Mobile App Native iOS and Android mobile app allowing users to monitor and manage Drift positions on the go.
Quantifiable outcome
- $826B Total Deposits
- +10 more outcomes
Companies that use Drift
Customer profileNamed customers15 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Drift technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration11 records
Feature10 records
Drift partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
26 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.
- GauntletflagshipFormer members of the Gauntlet team were engaged to contribute risk and vault expertise to Drift's relaunch. Work spans reviewing the liquidation engine, refining funding-rate and market parameters, supporting launch configuration, liquidator optimization, and ongoing risk monitoring.
- Helium (Noah Prince)flagshipNoah Prince, previously the Head of Protocol Engineering at Helium, joined Drift as Head of Protocol to strengthen the codebase and reinforce platform structure. Prince previously led Helium's migration to Solana end to end.
- TetherflagshipLed a recovery program of up to $147.5M (Tether contributing up to $127.5M and partners $20M) following the April 1, 2026 exploit. Drift will migrate its settlement layer from USDC to USDT, with Tether extending a $20M USDT market-making facility for liquid markets at relaunch. Over 128,000 users and 35 ecosystem teams will move onto Tether's stablecoin.
- EthenaflagshipPartnership to launch USDe and sUSDe on Solana via Drift, enabling yield-bearing collateral for perpetuals trading. At the time, USDe yielded 4.8% and sUSDe yielded 12%. Users accrue Ethena's native 'Sats' rewards daily when holding USDe/sUSDe on Drift.
- Ondo FinanceflagshipFirst partnership of its kind bringing tokenized RWAs as collateral on a perpetuals platform. Integrated USDY (backed by short-term US Treasuries, generating 5.30% APY at time of writing) as collateral for margin trading and perpetuals on Drift. Quote from Cindy Leow, co-founder of Drift, and Justin Schmidt, President & COO of Ondo Finance.
- Arthur Hayes / MaelstromflagshipArthur Hayes joined Drift as a strategic advisor in April 2024. Former CEO and co-founder of BitMEX, Hayes pioneered perpetual swaps in crypto in 2016. His vision of retail derivatives volume shifting from CEXs to DEXs aligns with Drift's vision. Hayes also advises Pendle and Ethena.
- DialectcorePartnership powering Drift Notifications via Dialect's Alert Stack. Drift was one of the first projects to integrate the Alert Stack, sending real-time notifications to users through the Drift app and Telegram.
- Circle (CCTP)flagshipDrift became one of the first Solana partners to integrate Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), enabling native burn-and-mint USDC transfers from Arbitrum, Base, and Ethereum to Drift as collateral for trading.
- Pyth NetworkflagshipDrift uses Pyth as its main oracle provider since Day 1; 400ms price feed updates in every Solana slot with confidence intervals. Drift was one of the largest DEX recipients of PYTH tokens through the Pyth Network Retrospective Airdrop and plans to stake to participate in Pyth governance.
- Circuit TradeflagshipStrategic partnership announced August 15, 2023 to provide delta-neutral market making vaults on Drift Earn, and to integrate with the Drift Points program. Circuit manages trading strategies (basis trades, delta-neutral market making) using deposited assets.
- WormholecoreDrift integrated Wormhole Connect for cross-chain bridging. During the April 2026 exploit, the Wormhole Governor delayed two transfers (59.37 WBTC and 557.90 WETH) until late July, locking funds in transit.
- BloXroute LabscoreBloXroute Labs announced a strategic partnership with Drift Protocol to enhance trading infrastructure.
- Ledger PrimecoreListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section. Institutional market-making and trading partner on Drift.
- QCP CapitalcoreListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section as an institutional partner.
- Robot VenturesminorListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section as an institutional partner.
- Not3Lau CapitalminorListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section as an institutional partner.
- Trail of BitsflagshipConducted security audit of Drift Protocol (announced March 13, 2023). Audited by industry-leading security firm. Audit available at drift.trade/audit.
- OtterSecflagshipConducted security audit of CONNECT by Drift. Also leading security redesign for Drift's relaunched codebase, conducting a full audit before launch.
- NeodymeflagshipConducted security audit of Drift Protocol. Audit available at drift.trade. Listed in homepage audits section.
- AsymmetricflagshipAdvising Drift on operational security best practices, mitigating the vulnerability exploited on April 1, 2026, and helping with organization-wide security enhancements as part of the relaunch.
- MandiantflagshipEngaged by Drift to conduct an independent forensic analysis of the April 1, 2026 exploit. Mandiant's investigation conclusively attributed the attack to UNC6862, a North Korean threat group. Also confirmed a six-month social-engineering operation targeting Drift.
- ZeroShadowcoreCybersecurity forensic and intelligence partner supporting Drift's ongoing recovery efforts.
- BybitcoreCollaboration on the public bounty program: 10% bounty on any successfully recovered assets (lazarbounty.com/en/DRIFT). Drift is also developing a bounty program with support from Arkham.
- Arkham IntelligencecoreSupporting Drift's bounty program development for asset recovery.
- Jito FoundationcoreDrift works with Jito on an order priority system enforcing 'cancel-before-take' at the app level via Jito BAM (Block Assembly Market). Drift validator is operated via Jito patches and infrastructure.
- Aggregation FoundationminorAggregation Foundation, a global nonprofit supporting open digital ecosystems, has Drift in its portfolio exposure across protocols. Foundation thesis focuses on decentralized finance, transaction execution, cross-chain interoperability, and metaverse infrastructure.
Scale indicators21 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Drift competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Binance: World's largest centralized crypto derivatives exchange. While not a direct competitor in DeFi, Binance represents the centralized incumbent whose perps volume Drift aspires to capture on-chain.
Direct peers
- GMX: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Arbitrum/Avalanche using a GLP-style liquidity pool model. Direct competitor in the on-chain perps category with similar value proposition of non-custodial leveraged trading.
- Vertex Protocol: Cross-margin DEX offering perpetual futures and spot trading on Arbitrum. Direct competitor with similar hybrid order book + AMM execution model targeting active derivatives traders.
- Jupiter Perps: Jupiter's perpetuals exchange operates natively on Solana using its JLP liquidity token. Directly competes with Drift for Solana-based perpetuals trading volume, with overlapping target customers and integrated liquidity flows.
- Perpetual Protocol: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange originally on Ethereum, now on multiple chains. Direct competitor with similar product offering of on-chain cross-margin perpetual contracts.
- Zeta Markets: Solana-native perpetual futures and options DEX with order book architecture. Directly competes with Drift in on-chain perps, targeting similar retail and institutional traders on the same chain.
- Aevo: Decentralized exchange specializing in perpetual futures and options, built on a custom rollup. Direct competitor in the on-chain derivatives category with overlapping institutional and retail audiences.
- Hyperliquid: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange with a custom L1 chain and on-chain order book. Direct competitor in the on-chain perps category, sharing Drift's value proposition of CEX-like execution without centralized custody.
- dYdX: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange that pioneered on-chain order book perps. Direct competitor in the perps DEX category with similar product offering (cross-margin perpetuals) and target market (active crypto traders).
Emerging players
- Mango Markets: Solana-native decentralized exchange offering perpetual futures, spot, and lending. Early-stage peer with overlapping product offering and same-chain dynamics; partially overlap with Drift's market maker and trader base.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Drift social profiles
Digital presenceDrift compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance5 records
Drift financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Drift leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Drift subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Drift funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Drift M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Drift
What does Drift do?
Drift is a non-custodial, open-source decentralized exchange (DEX) built natively on Solana that offers cross-margined perpetual futures and spot trading across 100+ assets with up to 101x leverage on SOL, BTC and ETH perps. It pairs this core trading venue with an integrated suite of yield and structured-product modules (Drift Earn, Drift Vaults, Drift Safety Module, prediction markets) and a developer-facing Builder Codes program that lets third parties integrate Drift's execution layer.
Is Drift a public or private company?
Drift is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Drift founded?
Drift was founded in 2021. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Drift based?
Drift is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, in the Oceania region.
How does Drift make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Trading fees (taker + maker) is the primary driver. The others are borrow/lend interest spread, vault performance fees, builder Codes revenue share and liquidation fees.
Who are Drift's main competitors?
Binance is listed as a broad incumbent. Direct peers are GMX, Vertex Protocol, Jupiter Perps, Perpetual Protocol, Zeta Markets, Aevo, Hyperliquid and dYdX. Mango Markets is listed as an emerging player.
Does Drift have an API?
Yes. Drift exposes a developer platform that enables third-party builders to integrate Drift's on-chain liquidity and order execution directly into their own applications via Builder Codes. Builders receive a per-order monetisation layer (RevenueShareEscrow), with all order routing and fee settlement handled programmatically. Public SDKs are offered in Python (driftpy) and TypeScript, and the protocol code is open-sourced on GitHub (drift-labs/protocol-v2). Documentation is available at docs.drift.trade/developers. Developer documentation is at docs.drift.trade/developers.
What industry is Drift in?
Drift's product category is Decentralized Exchange (DeFi). Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSADABAE, Perpetuals & Derivatives DEXs, with a secondary code of FSADAMAC, Derivatives, Perpetuals & Options Protocols. Its NAICS code is 52321 and its SIC code is 6200.