U.S. law firm probes potential class action over Drift Protocol hack, scrutiny falls on Circle

Gibbs Mura, a U.S. law firm, said it has opened a class action investigation into the April 1, 2026 breach of Drift Protocol, reviewing potential investor claims against Circle Internet Financial. The attack led to the theft of roughly $280 million to $285 million in assets. Investigators say the hacker then moved more than $230 million in USDC across chains to Ethereum using Circle's CrossChain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), with Circle not freezing the funds. The move comes after Circle voluntarily froze 16 commercial wallets in an unrelated civil dispute just nine days earlier. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has linked the incident to a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. The breach sent Drift Protocol's total value locked (TVL) from about $550 million to under $250 million, pushed the DRIFT token down more than 40%, and triggered indirect losses across at least 20 DeFi protocols.