Arthur Hayes Questions Crypto Wallet Tech After Drift Protocol Hack – Solana Says ‘Humans’ Were Target

• Maelstrom founder Arthur Hayes questioned whether the Drift Protocol exploit could have been avoided with stronger multisig infrastructure.
• Solana Foundation President Lily Liu said the attack highlights growing risks from social engineering and operational security weaknesses.
• Vice President of Technology at Solana, Jacob Creech, stated protocols should review multisig thresholds and implement safeguards like timelocks.

The $280 million exploit of Drift Protocol (DRIFT) prompted renewed scrutiny of crypto security practices on social media, with Maelstrom founder Arthur Hayes and Solana (SOL) ecosystem leaders pointing to weaknesses in multisignature controls and operational security.

“If Solana had native multi sig addresses, would the Drift hack even have been possible?” Hayes wrote in a post on X, questionioning whether the attack could have been prevented with different infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, executives across the Solana ecosystem stated that the attack exposed vulnerabilities in how protocols manage permissions rather than how their code is written.

The comments came as early investigations suggest the breach was not caused by a flaw in smart contracts, but by compromised administrative access. DRIFT’s price tumbled to a record low of $0.038 after the incident, before paring its losses. The altcoin was still down 27% in the last 24 hours at the time of writing, trading at around $0.052. Retail sentiment around DRIFT’s token on Stocktwits improved to ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ over the past day, and chatter rose to ‘extremely high’ from ‘high’ levels. 

Operational Security Risks Take Center Stage

Lily Liu, president at the Solana Foundation, said the incident “hits hard” for the ecosystem but underscored that smart contracts themselves remained intact. “The real targets now are humans: social engineering and opsec weaknesses more than code exploits,” Liu wrote in a post on X, adding that the focus should shift toward improving operational safeguards.

Jacob Creech, vice president of technology at Solana, said protocols should reassess their setups, including multisig thresholds and the use of timelocks to delay potentially malicious actions. “Every protocol should evaluate their setup and understand if it fits your security requirements,” he wrote on X, noting that stronger controls can limit the impact of compromised access.

Liu said Solana has faced similar challenges in the past and emphasized the need to continue improving infrastructure and best practices. “Solana has come through tough spots before by shipping faster, building better, looking out for each other — and shipping safer,” she said.

Solana was the worst-hit among the top 10 cryptocurrencies amid the current selloff. Solana’s price fell more than 5.5% in the last 24 hours to around $79. Retail sentiment around the altcoin on Stocktwits trended in ‘neutral’ territory over the past day, and retail chatter remained at ‘high’ levels.

While some users remained bullish on Solana, arguing that the Drift protocol, not Solana, was hacked, others expressed more caution.

Drift said all protocol functions have been frozen, and the multisig has now been updated to remove the compromised wallet. It added that it is working with exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and law enforcement agencies to trace and potentially recover the stolen funds.

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