Drift Hacker Doubles Down: $122M Now Washed via Tornado Cash
By @sharedot · · 6 pages
- Crypto
- Drift Protocol
- Tornado Cash
- Defi Security
The Drift Protocol exploiter has now laundered $122.3 million in ETH through 520 Tornado Cash transfers, the mixer's biggest deposit in two years.
The laundering operation doubles to a two-year record
The wallet tied to the Drift Protocol exploit came out of dormancy to orchestrate a large-scale laundering push: according to Cointribune, the hacker split the loot into 520 successive transactions and sent $122.3 million worth of Ethereum to Tornado Cash within roughly 48 hours on October 20 and 21.
Pluang corroborates the scale, describing over $122 million moved through 520 transfers in 48 hours. It has now roughly doubled, confirming the hacker is actively completing the laundering rather than pausing it.
A record no mixer wanted — the biggest deposit in two years
What makes this development surprising is the sheer scale relative to recent history. Per Cointribune, this is the single biggest deposit made by a cybercriminal on Tornado Cash in two years, a record that even seasoned on-chain watchers flagged with shock.
The hacker first converted tokens stolen on Solana into Ethereum, building a strategic reserve of over 56,000 ETH before feeding it into the mixer, according to Cointribune's report.
That cross-chain pivot is the classic pattern designed to break analytical continuity between the exploited Solana contracts and the eventual cash-out points on Ethereum.
Arkham traces the trail in real time
The evidence behind the record comes from on-chain forensics rather than rumor. Cointribune reports that Arkham Intelligence's tracking tools retraced the path of the stolen funds in real time, turning their radar on the hacker's wallet as the transfers mounted.
The case illustrates a war of attrition: even as anonymization tools obscure the flows, analytics firms continue to map deposits, conversion hops and wallet clusters publicly.
Still, the volume moving through the mixer shows that surveillance and sanctions have not deterred determined launderers at this scale.
CZ on wallet security, and the pressure now on DeFi
The fallout has drawn a response from one of crypto's most prominent figures. Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, addressed the episode on X, warning that 'no crypto wallet is 100% safe.
No software is bug-free. No technology is 100% secure,' and urging users to stay up to date and manage risks — remarks quoted by Cointribune and echoed in Pluang's coverage.
Beyond the rhetoric, the exploit's $285 million total damage, per Cointribune, keeps pressure on DeFi developers to harden cross-chain bridges and lending protocols, and to fund deeper smart-contract audits before the next assault.