Drift Exploiter Moves $109M in ETH Through Tornado Cash
The exploiter of the $295M Drift hack continues laundering funds through Tornado Cash while retaining a significant ETH balance.
The exploiter of the $295M Drift hack continues laundering funds through Tornado Cash while retaining a significant ETH balance. Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $2,470.86, down 0.4% since this brief published. This is an original TLT brief synthesising 2 outlets (Crypto.news, Cointelegraph), with their figures cross-checked, plus live market data, as of Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:04 UTC.
This development highlights the ongoing challenge of fund recovery in major DeFi exploits and the role of privacy mixers in obfuscating illicit transactions. The movement of such large sums through Tornado Cash raises concerns for regulators and the DeFi community.
- Drift exploiter sent $109M in ETH to Tornado Cash over two days.
- $138M in ETH remains in exploiter's wallets after the hack.
- Tornado Cash's TVL increased by 22.4% in the past week.
Crypto.news and Cointelegraph both report that wallets linked to the $295 million Drift hack sent $109 million in ETH to Tornado Cash over two days while retaining $138 million in tracked wallets. However, Cointelegraph specifies that the $46 million transfer occurred on Wednesday, while Crypto.news does not provide a specific timeline for the transfers beyond the two-day period.
- Drift Protocol Hacker Moves $61M in Ethereum to Tornado Cash
- Drift Exploiter Moves $109M in ETH Through Tornado Cash — this brief
The exploiter of the $295 million Drift hack has continued to move funds through Tornado Cash, a privacy mixer, according to multiple outlets. Crypto.news and Cointelegraph report that $109 million in ETH was sent to Tornado Cash over a two-day period.
Despite the large sum being laundered, the exploiter still holds a significant amount of ETH. Both outlets confirm that $138 million in ETH remains in the tracked wallets associated with the hack.
The movement of funds comes as Tornado Cash's total value locked (TVL) has seen a significant increase. DeFiLlama data shows that Tornado Cash's TVL has risen by 22.4% over the past week, reaching $836.19 million.
The Drift hack, which occurred in April, resulted in the theft of $295 million, making it one of the largest DeFi exploits to date. The exploiter has been gradually moving funds through Tornado Cash, making it difficult to trace the stolen assets.
In the broader market context, the total crypto market cap stands at $2.89 trillion, with 
Bitcoin up 1.72% in the last 24 hours. 
Ethereum, the native token of the blockchain on which the hack took place, is currently trading at $2,481.54, having gained 1.23% in the past day.
Since this brief published about 12 hours ago, Ethereum (ETH) has moved from $2,481.54 to $2,470.86 — -0.43%.
The chart plots ETH's price: grey is the move before this brief published, the vertical dashed line marks the moment it published, the horizontal dashed line is the price then, and the coloured area is the move since — from TLT's market data (daily resolution). It shows what happened after the news, not that the news caused it; many factors move prices. Not financial advice.
At today's peer-to-peer rate, 1 ETH ≈ ₦3.38M (about $2,470.86), up 1.0% over 24 hours. The naira itself trades about 2.6% above the official rate on the P2P market, so a Nigerian buyer's effective cost differs from the headline dollar price.
Live market data
Current prices for the asset in this story — live, source-stamped, updated every 15 minutes.
2 key figures independently matched across 2 outlets reporting this story.
TLT extracts the figures each outlet reports and flags the ones that agree. Numbers cited by only one outlet are attributed in the brief, not shown as corroborated.
Figures and sectors in this story, checked live against on-chain aggregators · October 21, 2026.
TLT reads these figures directly from on-chain aggregators (DeFiLlama, mempool.space) at build time — independent of what any outlet reported. Sector totals aggregate every protocol DeFiLlama tracks in that category. Values are live and will change.
Drift Exploiter Moves $109M in ETH Through Tornado Cash — questions & answers
How much ETH was stolen in the Drift hack?
The Drift hack resulted in the theft of $295 million in ETH.
What is Tornado Cash?
Tornado Cash is a privacy mixer that allows users to obfuscate the source of their cryptocurrency transactions.
Why is the exploiter using Tornado Cash?
The exploiter is using Tornado Cash to make it difficult to trace the stolen funds.
How much is 1 Ethereum worth in naira today?
About ₦3.38M at the live peer-to-peer (P2P) USDT rate, which is what Nigerians typically trade at — equivalent to roughly $2,470.86. The naira price moves with both ETH's US-dollar price and the USDT/NGN rate; use our Ethereum in naira page for any amount.
Has Ethereum's price moved since this brief was published?
ETH is down 0.43% since this brief first published — trading at $2,470.86 now versus $2,481.54 at publication. TLT re-checks this figure against CoinGecko and Binance every 15 minutes.
Which outlets reported this story?
This is an original TLT brief that synthesises reporting from Crypto.news, Cointelegraph, with the key figures cross-checked for agreement across them. It is not a copy of any one article — follow the source links above for the original reporting.
Original summary — not financial advice. This is an original TLT brief that summarises a development reported elsewhere and adds live market data for context; it is not the original article and reproduces no part of it. Follow the source link above for full details. Crypto is volatile and high-risk — always do your own research.