DeFi protocol Carrot becomes first casualty of $285M Drift exploit

Written by Brian Quarmby, Staff Writer. Reviewed by Felix Ng, Staff Editor. Written by Brian Quarmby, Staff Writer. Reviewed by Felix Ng, Staff Editor. DeFi protocol Carrot becomes first casualty of $285M Drift exploitLatest NewsPublishedMay 1, 2026Carrot's total value locked has collapsed 93% in a month, from $28 million to $1.99 million, leaving the protocol financially unable to continue.Solana-based decentralized finance yield protocol Carrot said Thursday that it is shutting down permanently, becoming one of the first DeFi protocols to fall due to contagion from the Drift Protocol exploit in early April. In an X post on Thursday, Carrot said the Drift exploit was “catastrophic” for the protocol and had left it financially unable to continue operating. The platform set a May 14 deadline for users to withdraw remaining funds. It said it will continue to help recovery efforts related to Drift and distribute assets once they become available.“We are setting May 14th as the deadline to withdraw any remaining funds from Boost, Turbo, and CRT before we will then begin to deleverage the system. Your deposited funds are still yours, but all leverage will be reduced to zero, freeing up all liquidity for CRT redemption,” the protocol’s team said.The Drift protocol exploit on April 1 was the second-largest in 2026. It was a highly coordinated attack that involved months of social engineering by a group of hackers who gained admin control and drained more than half the protocol's total value locked. The contagion spread to several affiliated projects such as the yield protocol Gauntlet, the lending and borrowing platform PrimeFi and the crypto fund Elemental DeFi. Related: Insider trading backlash forces Polymarket to step up surveillanceCarrot was integrated with Drift’s infrastructure and used its pools to generate yield for its users. Its TVL collapsed after the Drift Protocol hack. According to data from DefiLlama, Carrot’s total value locked was around $28 milli…

DeFi protocol Carrot becomes first casualty of $285M Drift exploit

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