Drift opens DFX claims with redemptions near one cent per dollar

The Drift Foundation opened claims and redemptions for DFX on Oct. 1, giving victims of its April 1 exploit a first path to cash recoveries, the foundation said in its launch announcement. Each DFX maps to one USDT of verified loss, and redeeming it burns the token while paying USDT from a Recovery Pool that held about 3.1 million at launch.

That opening math valued each token near 0.0104 USDT, or about 1.04 percent of the loss it represents, since the redemption rate is simply the pool balance divided by outstanding supply, the announcement explained. Those figures date to Oct. 1; later redemptions pay the rate quoted at that moment.

DFX is a standard SPL token on Solana, freely transferable and tradable on Raydium, and it stands apart from the DRIFT governance token, the foundation noted. Total supply is fixed at 299,500,810.998 DFX, matching nearly 299.5 million USDT in verified losses, and no new DFX will ever be minted, its tokenomics section stated.

The burn and the payout happen inside one transaction, so both go through or neither does, and redemptions are final, the update said. Payouts round down to the nearest 0.000001 USDT. CryptoSlate wrote that redeeming ends those tokens' participation in later deposits, while any DFX a holder keeps stays in line for future inflows.

Holding, selling and redeeming are all live options once tokens are claimed, and a partial redemption leaves the untouched balance still sharing in the pool, the guide detailed. Selling on a venue such as Raydium only moves the tokens to a new holder rather than cashing them against the pool, a distinction one Oct. 4 account drew in its launch coverage.

The pool grows from trading on Velocity, the rebuilt exchange, with a slice of net protocol revenue flowing in daily at 00:00 UTC until cumulative inflows match the full verified loss, the foundation said. The daily slice steps up with revenue: 60 percent of the first 30,000 USDT, 70 percent of the band from 30,000 to 100,000, and 90 percent above that, with each rate applying only inside its band.

Net protocol revenue means what is left of trading fees after 15 percent goes to the insurance fund and 15 percent to vAMM capital, the recovery design explained. Every deposit lands as a visible on-chain transaction, and the dashboard shows the pool balance, outstanding supply and current redemption amount live.

Two big headline pledges sit behind the pool without sitting inside it. Tether has committed up to 127.5 million USDT toward relaunch and user recovery, and strategic partners up to 20 million more, figures the foundation repeated in the Oct. 1 post. Those ceilings do not measure cash already deposited, CryptoSlate noted, pointing to Tether's April line that capital would arrive progressively and in step with platform performance.

Crowdfund Insider filled in the April shape of that support, recalling a revenue-linked credit facility, an ecosystem grant and market-maker loans rather than an upfront lump sum. Such financing can help restart the venue without the full headline amount becoming immediately redeemable, its Oct. 4 report said.

Any stolen funds pulled back through a freeze, the bounty or law enforcement also flow into the pool, the foundation added. Deposits stop once the pool has taken in the full verified-loss total across all sources.

Claiming starts with the wallet that controlled the Drift account on April 1, 2026, since allocations were locked in a loss snapshot and any other wallet shows nothing to claim, the how-to-claim steps said. Holders need a little SOL in that wallet for network fees, then connect at the dfx.drift.trade portal, where a Merkle proof checks the wallet and displays the exact allocation before the user accepts the terms and approves.

Redemption itself can come from any wallet holding DFX, with 50 percent and Max shortcuts beside a manual amount plus a quoted receive figure and rate, the guide said. Crowdfund Insider observed that early dashboard activity showed how thin first-day cash was, citing about 216,480 DFX burned for roughly 2,250 USDT on day one.

The design carries three hard properties: the pool only grows, the redemption amount never falls, and supply only shrinks, the foundation wrote. A redemption removes cash and burns tokens in the same proportion, leaving the per-token ratio untouched, while each fresh deposit lifts what every remaining token can claim.

The foundation's own illustration says that if 10 percent of supply redeemed, each surviving token would take about 11 percent more of every later deposit, and the same would apply to tokens left unclaimed and burned after the window shuts, the worked example showed. Those numbers describe mechanics only, the post stressed, not a forecast of full repayment, a caution both outside reports echoed.

The claim window closes at 00:00 UTC on Jan. 1, 2028, when any DFX still unclaimed will be burned for good, raising the share of later deposits for what remains, Crowdfund Insider noted. The insurance fund, which the foundation says came through the incident intact, runs as a separate claim under its own terms and is not part of DFX, CryptoSlate confirmed.