Drift

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).

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

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

• Decentralized exchange
• Perpetual futures trading
• DeFi yield products
• Cross-margin derivatives
• Solana DeFi protocol

Headquarters

HQ city

Sydney

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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).
4. 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.
5. Liquidation fees: Drift operates an advanced liquidation engine that processes bankrupt positions; liquidation penalties contribute to revenue and the Insurance Fund.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels12 records

Core 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

Named customers15 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

26 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• GauntletflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 June 2026Former 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)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 June 2026Noah 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.
• TetherflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 April 2026Led 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.
• EthenaflagshipTechnology or Integration · 7 August 2024Partnership 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 FinanceflagshipTechnology or Integration · 18 June 2024First 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 / MaelstromflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 April 2024Arthur 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.
• DialectcoreTechnology or Integration · 8 April 2024Partnership 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)flagshipTechnology or Integration · 26 March 2024Drift 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 NetworkflagshipTechnology or Integration · 13 February 2024Drift 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 or Co-development Partner · 15 August 2023Strategic 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.
• WormholecoreTechnology or Integration · 4 May 2023Drift 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 LabscoreTechnology or Integration · 17 April 2023BloXroute Labs announced a strategic partnership with Drift Protocol to enhance trading infrastructure.
• Ledger PrimecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section. Institutional market-making and trading partner on Drift.
• QCP CapitalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section as an institutional partner.
• Robot VenturesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section as an institutional partner.
• Not3Lau CapitalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed in Drift's homepage 'Trusted by industry-leading financial institutions' section as an institutional partner.
• Trail of BitsflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerConducted security audit of Drift Protocol (announced March 13, 2023). Audited by industry-leading security firm. Audit available at drift.trade/audit.
• OtterSecflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerConducted security audit of CONNECT by Drift. Also leading security redesign for Drift's relaunched codebase, conducting a full audit before launch.
• NeodymeflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerConducted security audit of Drift Protocol. Audit available at drift.trade. Listed in homepage audits section.
• AsymmetricflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvising 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.
• MandiantflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerEngaged 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.
• ZeroShadowcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCybersecurity forensic and intelligence partner supporting Drift's ongoing recovery efforts.
• BybitcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration 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 IntelligencecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting Drift's bounty program development for asset recovery.
• Jito FoundationcoreTechnology or IntegrationDrift 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 FoundationminorOthersAggregation 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

Broad 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

• Xx.com/driftprotocol
• GitHubgithub.com/drift-labs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/driftprotocol

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors12 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Drift