Drift Protocol Relaunches as Velocity DEX With Tether Backing After Lazarus Hack — DeFi

Drift Protocol Relaunches as Velocity DEX With Tether Backing After Lazarus Hack

Drift Protocol relaunches as Velocity DEX after losing $280M to North Korean hackers, backed by a $127.5M Tether credit line and a controversial stablecoin swap from USDC to USDT affecting 128,000 users. The Lazarus Group drained the exchange in 12 minutes via compromised multisig wallets, also hitting 11 dependent DeFi protocols while the DRIFT token trades near its all-time low.

Forward Industries Buys SOL at $79 While Sitting on $1B Loss — DeFi

Forward Industries Buys SOL at $79 While Sitting on $1B Loss

Forward Industries accumulated 7.55 million SOL tokens, positioning itself as the largest publicly traded Solana treasury, but its existing position is underwater by over $1 billion while it funds new purchases through equity dilution. The strategy mirrors MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin playbook: accumulate through drawdowns, issue shares to fund purchases, and rely on passive index flows to support the stock price.

Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% as Insiders Launch Rival Institutional Entity — Ethereum

Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% as Insiders Launch Rival Institutional Entity

Ethereum Institutional launched July 1, 2026, as a dedicated institutional entry point for Ethereum, founded by three former Foundation members and backed by major stakeholders including co-founder Joseph Lubin. The timing coincides with the Ethereum Foundation’s 54-job layoffs and represents a quiet disaggregation of functions once held centrally—mirroring Bitcoin’s earlier ecosystem evolution.