- An ex-Drift Labs employee has criticised DeFi following the Drift Protocol exploit.
- The insider had savings in the hacked protocol.
- Hackers stole $286 million from the Solana-based exchange on April 1.
A Drift Protocol insider who lost her savings in the exploited decentralised finance protocol has said the industry needs to grow up if it’s ever going to be ready for everyday investors.
On April 1, hackers drained over $286 million from the Solana-based trading platform. Investigators have since pointed the finger at North Korean cybercriminals.
The incident highlights how decentralised finance still has a long way to go when it comes to its security, which will prevent it from being accepted among traditional finance, according to Ann Irvina Ravinther, former marketing lead at Drift Labs, the firm behind the trading platform.
“Trust needs to recover,” Ravinther told DL News.
“People already in crypto and DeFi are forgiving and think it’s part of progress but at some point the industry needs to mature if it’s going to be ready for retail.”
“Right now, it’s not,” she added.
Ravinther left Drift Labs in February, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Ravinther wrote on X following the hack that she had lost $76,000 in crypto because of the hack. It isn’t clear whether she has managed to recover the funds. She didn’t answer DL News’ questions on the matter.
Security in the DeFi space is a major issue after a number of high-profile hacks last year. Most recently, in November, criminals stole $128 million from decentralised exchange and automated market maker Balancer.
In 2025, criminals stole over $2.5 billion in crypto, according to DefiLlama. So far in 2026, digital larcenists have stolen nearly $456 million.
The future of finance?
The DeFi space is still experimental but has become more mainstream as of late, with even a US President Donald Trump-backed protocol, World Liberty Financial, promising to revolutionise the way people handle their money.
Still, security needs to improve if people are to trust DeFi, said Ravinther.
“In the five years that I’ve been in crypto, it is sad that security is still the story,” she wrote on X.
“How is this the future of finance?”
She added in an exchange with DL News: “It’s one of those things you think won't happen, and then it does.”
David Schwed, a cybersecurity expert chief operating officer of Near protocol infrastructure firm SVRN, told DL News that DeFi protocols aren’t focusing enough on security.
“I don’t see the effort being put in,” he said.
“They don’t have the budgets of the bank, they don’t have the maturity of the bank. They haven't been running for 50 or 60 years and really understand how to build out a proper security programme.”
What we know
The Drift Protocol hack involved social engineering, according to blockchain analysts and security firms.
Cybercriminals for months built relationships with the Drift team, meeting them in person at conferences and pretending to be from a legitimate trading organisation, Chainalysis said.
Hackers then tricked multisig signers into signing transactions they did not fully understand, handing over admin control. The criminals were then able to change protocol permissions and withdraw funds.
The weak point was the humans in control of the project, not a fault in the protocol’s code, as seen with previous hacks.
“The core issue is not the number of signers, but the lack of understanding of transaction intent,” Deddy Lavid, CEO and co-founder of security firm Cyvers, told DL News.
“This is why security needs to move beyond signer-based trust toward transaction-level verification, where every action is evaluated based on what it actually does, not just who approved it.”
Drift Labs did not respond to questions from DL News.
The protocol’s official X page announced Tuesday that it was working with security researchers to put together a recovery plan.
“We recognise the impact this has had across our users and the builders who have integrated with us — many of whom rely on Drift as core infrastructure,” a Wednesday post read.
“We’re actively working on next steps and will share more once details are finalized.”
Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.
