How Solana's Largest Perp DEX Was Exploited for $285 Million
Chaos Labs' Omer Goldberg unpacks the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit. Did the perp DEX fail to implement best practices?
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Solana's biggest perp DEX Drift Protocol was exploited for $285 million on April Fool's Day in a compromise observers have described as “methodical” and “chilling.”
Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg unpacks how the exploit, which is among the 10 largest in DeFi history, went down, including how hackers leveraged a Solana feature to lie in wait without triggering alarms and how the attack bore some resemblance to the Mango DAO and Resolv exploits.
He also weighs in on criticism against Circle for its slow response and whether the exploit has the markings of a North Korean state sponsored attack.
In Omer's telling, the loss could have been avoided.
Listen to find out more!
Guest:
Omer Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Chaos Labs
Previous appearances on Unchained:
How the Resolv Hack Was a Web2 Exploit, Not a Crypto One - Uneasy Money
Links
Unchained:
Drift Protocol Suffers $285 Million Exploit After Admin Key Compromise and Oracle Manipulation
Uneasy Money: How the Resolv Hack Shows an Audit Doesn’t Mean ‘Secure’
The Mango Markets Attacker on Whether His ‘Trade’ Was Ethical or Not
North Korean Hackers Are Winning. Is the Crypto Industry Ready to Stop Them?
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Omer Goldberg: The DeFi Exploit That Exposed a Bigger Problem
A new DeFi exploit triggered millions in losses, but the deeper story is about risk. In this episode, Omer Goldberg, founder of Chaos Labs, explains how the attack unfolded, why the damage spread across lending markets, what vault curators got wrong, and whether DeFi is truly ready for mainstream adoption. If you want to understand stablecoin risk, oracle design, curator incentives, and the future of safer onchain finance, this is the conversation to watch.Big thanks to our sponsors;NEXONexo is a premier digital assets wealth platform that helps clients build, manage, and preserve their wealth through advanced interest-generating products, crypto-backed credit, advanced trading tools, and 24/7 client care. Get started at nexo.com/defiant MERCURYOYour Web3 product deserves solid payment infrastructure. Global on/off-ramps, custom APIs, and DeFi connectivity trusted by the biggest names in crypto: mercuryo.ioROCKET POOLRocket Pool is Ethereum’s decentralised liquid staking protocol. Node operators can join with just 4 ETH, or liquid stakers can hold rETH and automatically earn staking rewards. rocketpool.net
Uneasy Money: How the Resolv Hack Shows an Audit Doesn't Mean 'Secure'
Chaos Labs’ Omer Goldberg joins the crew to dig into the Resolv Labs exploit. Why was the USR minting function controlled by a single key? And how did audits miss it?
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$25 million extracted and millions more in bad debt across lending protocols.
Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg joins Uneasy Money hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan to unpack the Resolv exploit.
They dive into how the exploit reveals DeFi's basic OpSec and risk judgement failings. Omer highlights the various ways it could have been prevented as Tay says protocol audits have become “security theater.”
Kain questions Morpho's curator model after its pools were hit hard as the contagion spread. He also highlights markers that suggest the exploit may have been executed in panic.
Beyond the Resolv exploit, the crew highlights that Aave v4 has made it out of governance, discussing the motivations behind the upgrade and whether the hub and spoke model will impact listing standards.
Hosts:
Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix
Taylor Monahan, Security Expert
Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins
Guest:
Omer Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Chaos Labs
Links:
Unchained:
Aave V4 Clears First Governance Vote with 100% Support After Months of Internal Conflict
Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Labs Is Putting Itself at the Mercy of the DAO
How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money
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