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Drift Protocol Secures $147.5 Million Recovery Package After April 1 Exploit

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TLDR:

  • Tether will contribute up to $127.5M, including a $100M revenue-linked credit line, to fund Drift’s recovery pool.
  • Drift Protocol will issue a transferable recovery token to affected users, separate from the DRIFT governance token.
  • After relaunch, Drift will settle transactions in USDT instead of USDC, aligning with Tether’s direct involvement.
  • The $147.5M recovery package targets full coverage of $295M in outstanding user losses from the April 1 exploit.

Drift Protocol has secured a $147.5 million recovery package following an exploit that occurred on April 1. Tether will contribute up to $127.5 million, while additional partners will provide $20 million.

The funds will go toward covering $295 million in outstanding user losses. A dedicated recovery pool will be established using exchange revenue and committed support funds. The relaunch will also shift settlement from USDC to USDT.

Tether Leads Major Funding Effort to Address User Losses

Tether’s commitment forms the backbone of Drift Protocol’s recovery plan. The stablecoin issuer will provide a $100 million revenue-linked credit line as part of its contribution. Ecosystem grants and loans for market makers are also included in the package.

The recovery pool will draw from most of Drift’s exchange revenue going forward. Combined with the committed funds from Tether and partners, the pool targets full coverage of the $295 million owed to users. This structured approach ensures a steady flow of resources into the recovery effort.

Tether will also provide market-making support through designated market makers after the relaunch. This move ties the stablecoin issuer more closely to Drift’s ongoing operations. It also reflects a broader interest in stabilizing the protocol for long-term use.

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Partners beyond Tether have pledged an additional $20 million to strengthen the package. This collective backing shows coordinated support from across the ecosystem. Together, the contributors form a unified front to restore user confidence in the protocol.

Recovery Token and Settlement Shift Mark Structural Changes for Drift

Drift will issue a dedicated recovery token to users affected by the April 1 exploit. This token is separate from the existing DRIFT governance token and carries a distinct function. It represents a direct claim on the recovery pool established through the funding package.

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The recovery token is transferable, giving affected users flexibility in how they manage their claims. Users can hold or trade the token depending on their preference. This design allows market participants to price and move recovery claims as needed.

After relaunch, Drift will settle transactions in USDT instead of USDC. The switch aligns with Tether’s involvement and removes reliance on a competing stablecoin. It also streamlines operations by using the currency backed by the primary funder.

The structural shift to USDT settlement, paired with the recovery token issuance, reshapes how Drift will function going forward. These changes reflect decisions made in direct response to the exploit. They also establish a clearer operational framework as the protocol prepares to resume services.

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South Korea to trial tokenized bank deposits for government operational spending

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South Korea to trial tokenized bank deposits for government operational spending

South Korea is moving toward a more transparent public ledger by testing tokenized deposits for day-to-day government spending in a new regulatory sandbox trial.

Summary

  • South Korea will launch a blockchain-based pilot in Sejong City to handle daily government operational spending through tokenized deposits.
  • The Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to replace traditional government credit cards with programmable digital payments that feature predefined limits on timing and usage categories.
  • The initiative targets a full rollout by the final quarter of 2026 and forms part of a strategy to digitize one-quarter of all treasury fund executions by 2030.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF), the government has selected a pilot project that uses blockchain-based deposits to handle operational expenses, with a full rollout scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026. 

This initiative will initially launch in Sejong City, replacing the current system where officials use government-issued credit and debit cards for official business. 

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Unlike traditional payments that rely on post-use reporting to catch errors, this digital framework allows authorities to pre-set spending conditions, such as specific time windows and permitted categories, to ensure funds are used exactly as intended.

These tokenized deposits act as digital versions of standard bank deposits held on a distributed ledger. Because they remain liabilities of participating commercial banks and operate within existing financial systems, they offer more stability than private stablecoins.

The MOEF confirmed that nine major banks—including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana—are participating in the experiment to issue and manage these tokens. This infrastructure effectively links the government’s Digital Budget and Accounting System (dBrain) with the blockchain, creating a traceable path for every won spent.

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By moving beyond one-off subsidies and into recurring operational costs, the ministry expects to see a significant reduction in the misuse of public funds and a decrease in settlement times.

The sandbox environment provides a legal carve-out for this trial, as current regulations typically mandate that such expenses be processed through specific physical cards. 

Moving to a programmable system allows for a level of oversight that traditional banking cannot match, potentially lowering transaction fees for small businesses receiving government payments by removing traditional card network intermediaries.

“The trial will serve as a basis for evaluating new payment and settlement methods, with potential implications for fiscal operations if the model proves viable,” the ministry stated.

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Integrating distributed ledger technology (DLT) aligns with a long-term strategy to digitize South Korea’s treasury. The MOEF previously disclosed a target to convert 25% of all treasury fund executions to digital currency by 2030. 

Success in Sejong City will likely lead to legislative updates intended to scale this model across all branches of the national government.

The initiative builds on a previous project launched in March involving the Environment Ministry and the Bank of Korea, which utilized tokenized deposits to manage 30 billion won in subsidies for electric vehicle charging stations.

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Houston Man Sentenced to 23 Years Over Fake Gold- and Art-Backed Crypto Scheme

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Houston Man Sentenced to 23 Years Over Fake Gold- and Art-Backed Crypto Scheme

A Texas man received a 23-year federal prison sentence for running a crypto scam. The fraud drained nearly 1,000 investors of more than $20 million through a sham asset-backed token.

Robert Dunlap, 55, of Houston, sold a digital asset called Meta-1 Coin from 2018 to 2023. Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois led the case.

How the Meta-1 Coin Crypto Scam worked

According to the press release, Dunlap built his pitch around fabricated reserves. He told investors that Meta-1 Coin was backed by up to $1 billion in art. The collection supposedly included works attributed to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh, and others.

He also claimed roughly $44 billion in gold stood behind the token. An accounting firm had audited and certified the bullion, Dunlap falsely told buyers.

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“Defendant lied to investors for years telling them that he had created a safe investment for them. Over the years, defendant was unrepentant and his lies became bigger. Would-be criminals planning to engage in similar conduct need to know that such actions will be met with a serious repercussion that includes loss of one’s liberty for an extended period of time,” Assistant US Attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.

A federal jury convicted Dunlap on two counts of mail fraud in November 2025. US District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt handed down the 23-year sentence this week. She also ordered restitution for fraud victims, many of whom reported losing their life savings.

US Attorney Andrew S. Boutros and special agents from the FBI’s Chicago Field Office and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) announced the sentence. They received assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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The post Houston Man Sentenced to 23 Years Over Fake Gold- and Art-Backed Crypto Scheme appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Ketman Project Identifies 100 North Korean IT Workers Working in Web3

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Ketman Project Identifies 100 North Korean IT Workers Working in Web3

The Ketman Project, funded by an Ethereum Foundation stipend, identified 100 North Korean IT workers and alerted about 53 projects employing DPRK operatives.

The Ethereum Foundation said it funded a six-month project that exposed 100 North Korean operatives who had infiltrated Web3 companies under fake identities.

The foundation on Thursday shared a recap of its ETH Rangers program, which was launched in late 2024 to provide “stipends for individuals doing public goods security work” within the ecosystem.

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One of the recipients used the capital to build the Ketman Project to focus on investigating “fake developers” embedded within crypto, particularly operatives from the People’s Republic of Korea.

During the six-month stipend period, the Ketman Project identified “100 different DPRK IT workers operating within Web3 organizations” and reached out to about 53 projects to alert them about having potentially employed active DPRK operatives.

“This work directly addresses one of the most pressing operational security threats facing the Ethereum ecosystem today,” the Ethereum Foundation said.

North Korean operatives have been plaguing the crypto sector, leading to billions worth of crypto stolen over the years. One of the highest-profile hacking groups from North Korea is known as the Lazarus Group.

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Ketman Project website articles on DPRK operatives. Source: Ketman Project

The Ethereum Foundation did not go into detail about how the Ketman Project was able to identify the DPRK operatives. However, the project’s website has an extensive range of articles explaining the types of “tactics, behaviors and operational patterns” the operatives deploy.

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They include technical red flags such as reusing avatars and profile metadata across multiple GitHub accounts, exposing unlinked email addresses during accidental screen sharing, and displaying default language settings, such as Russian, that contradict their claimed nationality.

Alongside identifying North Korean operatives, the Ketman Project also developed an open-source detection tool to identify suspicious GitHub activity and co-authored an industry-standard framework for identifying DPRK IT workers in partnership with blockchain-focused nonprofit organization the Security Alliance.

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