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Solana DeFi Protocol Carrot to Shut Down After Drift Exploit Fallout

The shutdown highlights the risk of DeFi apps that route user funds through shared infrastructure.

Overview

  • Carrot said Thursday it will close and gave users until May 14 to withdraw funds before it reduces all positions to zero leverage to free cash for CRT redemptions.
  • The protocol’s total value locked fell from about $28 million to $1.99 million after the April 1 Drift breach, according to DefiLlama, a drop that left the project unable to continue.
  • Drift’s loss followed months of social engineering in which impostors courted contributors at events and online before pushing malicious tools, with outside estimates putting losses near $280–285 million.
  • Projects tied to Drift’s systems, including Gauntlet, PrimeFi, and Elemental DeFi, reported knock-on disruptions as shared integrations spread the liquidity shock.
  • April saw roughly $630 million stolen across 25 crypto incidents, with the Kelp exploit at about $293 million and the Drift breach accounting for over 90% of those losses.