Velocity, the organization formerly known as Drift Foundation, has opened the claims process for users affected by the April 1 exploit that drained about $295.4 million. The launch of the DFX recovery token gives victims a way to claim, hold, redeem or sell compensation tied to their verified losses, but the starting recovery rate is far below the original losses.

At launch, each DFX token was worth about 0.0104 USDT, implying that a user who lost 100 USDT would currently be able to redeem roughly 1.04 USDT. That starting level has prompted criticism from victims, even as the foundation says the redemption rate is designed to rise over time rather than fall.

How the DFX payout is calculated

The recovery structure converts each verified dollar lost in the hack into one DFX token. DFX is a standard SPL token on Solana, and holders can keep it, redeem it against the recovery pool, or trade it on Raydium and other secondary markets.

The launch valuation came from a recovery pool holding about 3.11 million USDT against a fixed supply of 299,500,810.998 DFX. Dividing the pool by the outstanding token supply produces a value of roughly 0.0104 USDT per token, or about one cent returned for every dollar lost at the current rate.

Why victims may be waiting years

Velocity says the redemption rate is non-decreasing because the pool was structured only to grow. In practice, that means the current recovery level reflects only the funds already deposited, while future additions are expected to lift the value of each DFX over time.

A daily contribution mechanism sends part of Velocity’s net protocol revenue into the pool at 00:00 UTC. The formula allocates 60% of the first 30,000 USDT of daily revenue, 70% of revenue up to 100,000 USDT, and 90% of anything above that, continuing until the full verified loss amount has been deposited.

Other funding commitments and market reaction

Beyond protocol revenue, Tether has pledged up to 127.5 million USDT and other strategic partners have committed up to 20 million USDT. Those sums are not available all at once, however, and are set to be released in phases under a preset schedule. Any assets eventually recovered from the stolen funds would form a fourth source of repayment, though that stream remains uncertain.

Trading in DFX turned active soon after launch. The token rose about 210% in 24 hours to around $0.03, but liquidity was only about $200,000, a relatively thin market that can amplify volatility.

Claim deadline and the next known milestones

The claims window remains open until 00:00 UTC on January 1, 2028. Any DFX that has not been claimed by that deadline will be burned.

Velocity’s September 30 update said that $9.2 million of the stolen funds had been frozen after the attacker routed assets through Tornado Cash in August. The update also said three of the four Ethereum wallets linked to the theft still hold 107,165 ETH and had not moved those funds for months. For victims, the next confirmed steps are the ongoing claims process and the gradual addition of revenue, pledged support and any recovered assets to the pool.

Source: Cryptopolitan