What is Drift (now Velocity)?
Drift was the largest DeFi protocol on Solana, offering perpetuals, spot, borrowing and vaults. On April 1, 2026 attackers drained about $285 million after gaining admin control, and the team later rebranded and relaunched the exchange as Velocity DEX.
According to Drift's post-mortem as summarized by Chainalysis, attackers spent months building trust with the team, then used Solana durable nonces to get Security Council members to pre-sign transactions that handed over admin control. They whitelisted a fake collateral token and withdrew real USDC, SOL and ETH. The attack is suspected to be DPRK-linked.
Velocity is a fork of Drift v2 deployed as a new program with a new program ID and a reduced feature set. The Drift program is paused, no onchain state carries over, and users must open fresh accounts. The mainnet quote asset changed from USDC to USDT.
The rebuilt setup separates cold, warm, hot and pause keys with timelocks, according to the team, and the new code was audited by OtterSec. Press reports say the relaunch started as a private beta in mid-2026.
The legacy drift.trade site still advertises up to 101x leverage on majors and yield vaults; those figures describe Drift, not necessarily Velocity's reduced launch scope.
Good fit for
- Solana perps traders comfortable with post-incident risk
- Developers migrating integrations from Drift
Not ideal for
- Risk-averse users wanting a clean security record
- Traders who depend on Drift's former full product suite
Drift (now Velocity) Atlas AI Score
6.1 / 10 Decent
Confidence: Medium
Drift as users knew it is gone: the program is paused after a major admin-key exploit and Velocity is a fresh start. Wait for a longer track record before committing meaningful capital.
Perps focus with reduced relaunch scope.
Clear tiered schedule, but admin-settable.
Non-custodial, but a $285M admin-key exploit.
Original program paused; successor is new.
Thorough Velocity docs incl. risks and keys.
Scored by AI from official sources on October 27, 2026. No hands-on testing or security audit. How we score
Drift (now Velocity) features
- Status
- Drift program paused; Velocity live
- Product
- Perpetual futures on Solana
- Quote asset
- USDT on Velocity (was USDC on Drift)
- Fees
- 6 bps taker, 0.25 bps maker rebate base
- Order flow
- Auctions and order book fills
- Safety
- Insurance fund, contract tiers, guard rails
- Developers
- @velocity-exchange/sdk, data API
Drift (now Velocity) fees
| Tier | 30-day volume | Taker / maker |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | under $5m | 0.060% / -0.0025% |
| VIP 1 | $5m to $80m | 0.050% / -0.0025% |
| VIP 2 | $80m to $200m | 0.040% / -0.0025% |
| VIP 3 | above $200m | 0.020% / -0.0025% |
Drift's fee docs now point to Velocity Protocol. Velocity charges the taker on filled notional, in USDT, at 6 bps (0.06%) for accounts under $5m of 30-day volume, falling to 5, 4 and 2 bps at VIP tiers; makers earn a 0.25 bps rebate at every tier.
These are baseline rates for SOL, BTC and ETH perps; other markets can be priced differently, and the docs state rates are admin-settable, so live values should be checked in the app. Solana network fees apply on deposits and withdrawals.
Drift (now Velocity) pros and cons
Pros
- Low, published taker fees with maker rebates
- Experienced team and mature codebase
- Detailed documentation on risks and admin keys
Cons
- Suffered one of Solana's largest exploits
- Old Drift balances do not migrate automatically
- Reduced feature set at relaunch
- Fees are admin-settable and can change
Drift (now Velocity) vs Jupiter vs PancakeSwap
The closest alternatives in our catalog: same market first, then the highest-scoring products.
| Feature | Drift (now Velocity) | Jupiter | PancakeSwap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Solana perpetuals DEX, paused after an April 2026 exploit and relaunched as Velocity | Solana DEX aggregator and trading super-app with perps, prediction markets and lending | Multi-chain decentralized exchange |
| Platform | Web app, mobile app, TypeScript SDK · Solana | Web (jup.ag) · Jupiter Mobile (iOS, Android) · Jupiter Wallet extension · APIs · Solana, with a beta bridge to other chains | Web · BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Aptos and 5 more |
| Trading fee | Velocity perps: 0.06% taker, 0.0025% maker rebate at base tier | Ultra swaps 0-0.5% by pair; Manual swaps 0%; perps 0.06% base fee | 0.01% to 1% pool fee (V2 0.25%) |
| Custody | Non-custodial smart-contract accounts; the original Drift program is paused and balances do not carry over to Velocity | Non-custodial: swaps and positions are signed from the user's own Solana wallet | Self-custodial |
| Telegram | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Atlas AI Score | 6.1 / 10 | 8.7 / 10 | 8.4 / 10 |
| Confidence | Medium | High | High |
Compare side by side: Drift (now Velocity) vs Jupiter vs PancakeSwap
How to get started with Drift (now Velocity)
- Read the Velocity docs on migration and admin keys.
- Open a new Velocity account; do not reuse Drift addresses.
- Deposit USDT on Solana, not USDC.
- Trade small size and check live per-market fees first.
