Drift opened DFX recovery claims on Oct. 1 with a 3.11 million USDT pool covering about 1.04% of the 299.5 million USDT in verified losses from the protocol's April 1 exploit, translating to a 0.0104 USDT payout per token at launch.

The Drift Foundation disclosed the pool size and per-token rate in the launch terms. DFX has a fixed supply of nearly 299.5 million tokens, issued at a one-to-one ratio against each claimant's verified loss in USDT. Redeeming burns the tokens in exchange for USDT at the pool's current rate and ends the holder's claim on future deposits.

What is DFX?

DFX is a recovery instrument for users of the Solana perpetuals exchange formerly known as Drift, which rebranded to Velocity ahead of its relaunch. The token corresponds one-for-one to the USDT value of each claimant's verified loss from the April 1 incident, which The Defiant previously reported at roughly $295 million.

Holders can keep DFX to participate in future recovery deposits, sell it on Raydium, or redeem at the current pool rate. Any wallet holding DFX can redeem, not just the wallet that originally claimed the allocation.

How does the pool fill up?

The recurring funding source is Velocity's Net Protocol Revenue, which the launch terms define as 70% of net trading fees after other allocations. The Recovery Pool takes a tiered share of that base:

• 60% of the first 30,000 USDT in daily revenue
• 70% of the next 30,000–100,000 USDT
• 90% of any daily revenue above 100,000 USDT

Drift also lists commitments of up to 127.5 million USDT from Tether for relaunch and recovery, plus up to 20 million USDT from strategic partners. Any funds recovered from the original exploit flow into the pool as well. Tether said in April that its capital support would be introduced progressively and aligned with platform performance.

Contributions stop once cumulative deposits reach the full amount of verified losses. The per-token payout equals the pool balance divided by the outstanding DFX supply; redeeming tokens and disbursing USDT in the same proportion leaves that rate unchanged, with subsequent deposits accruing to the remaining holders.

What changed from the May plan?

The launch terms replace Drift's earlier proposal of quarterly revenue contributions with daily deposits. They also open redemptions below the $5 million threshold outlined in the May recovery framework, making the instrument tradeable earlier than initially planned.

How do users claim?

The claim portal verifies each applicant's wallet address against Drift's April 1, 2026 loss snapshot. Eligible allocations are fixed. The window closes at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 31, 2027 — midnight UTC on Jan. 1, 2028 — after which unclaimed DFX will be permanently burned.

The launch terms place a hard deadline on the instrument itself: unclaimed DFX burns at midnight UTC on Jan. 1, 2028, converting any unused allocation into a permanent claim loss for affected users. The per-token redemption rate is open-ended and rises only as Velocity's daily trading revenue flows into the pool.