A group linked to North Korea allegedly infiltrated Drift Protocol over a six-month period by posing as a quantitative trading firm before executing a $270 million exploit on April 1, 2026. The attackers built trust by meeting developers at conferences, depositing over $1 million, and integrating an Ecosystem Vault, before compromising devices via a malicious TestFlight app and a VSCode/Cursor vulnerability to obtain multisig approvals.
Researchers attributed the attack to UNC4736, also known as AppleJeus or Citrine Sleet, with Drift warning that such identity-based attacks expose deep vulnerabilities in multisig security models across DeFi. Circle faced criticism for not freezing stolen USDC following the $285 million Drift exploit. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT argued that faster action could have limited losses.
Charles Schwab plans to introduce spot trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum in the first half of 2026 through its Charles Schwab Premier Bank unit. The Ethereum Foundation staked over 45,000 ETH on Friday, bringing its total staked holdings to approximately 69,500 ETH, just below its 70,000 target.