Mike Hale Velocity, the Solana perpetuals exchange formerly known as Drift, has opened a private beta at a 0.02% fee tier, its lowest ever, applied starting with a trader's first trade. The beta went live on August 25, 2026, to a select group of partners and traders, with a public audit expected to wrap up within the week.
Velocity has been in development since Drift's $285 million hack on April 1, 2026, rebuilding its contracts and margin system from the ground up rather than patching the old ones. Alpha testing with a small cohort has already gone well, and the private beta is the next step.
The private beta gives testers Velocity's 0.02% fee tier on every trade from day one. Referrals earn 20% of the fees generated by anyone they bring in, which Velocity says is the highest referral rate it pays out.
“Perpetual trading is a market where execution speed and directional precision determine outcomes. Velocity captures both, and signifies the momentum behind our relaunch.”
— Velocity, via X
The headline number for traders is the 0.02% fee tier, applied from a trader's first transaction rather than unlocking after a volume threshold. That's aimed squarely at active perp traders who care about execution cost on every fill, not just at the margin.
The referral program gives 20% of fees on every trade a referred trader makes, paid out on an ongoing basis rather than a one-time bonus. Velocity is positioning both the fee tier and the referral rate as recruiting tools for the beta, meant to pull in liquidity and volume ahead of a wider relaunch.
How Does Velocity's Multi-Collateral Margin Work?
Velocity's margin system lets a single deposit do two things at once: earn yield and back open positions. Traders deposit SOL or USDT, that balance earns yield while it sits in the account, and the same balance serves as margin for perp positions, with everything settled in USDT.
Most margin systems leave collateral sitting idle whenever it isn't backing a position. Velocity's setup keeps that same balance earning yield the whole time, whether it's actively margining a trade or not.
Why Velocity Has Been Rebuilding Since Drift's $285 Million Hack
Drift was hacked on April 1, 2026, in an attack that started with months of social engineering rather than a code exploit. Attackers posed as a quantitative trading firm, built trust with Drift contributors, and used that access to get members of Drift's Security Council to sign what looked like routine transactions using Solana's durable nonces feature, which allows a transaction to be signed in advance and executed later. When the attackers triggered those pre-signed transactions, they held admin control of the protocol for about a second.
That was enough time to whitelist a worthless token they had created, deposit 500 million of it as collateral, and withdraw roughly $285 million in real assets. The disruption spread to at least 20 other Solana protocols with exposure to Drift, and early indicators pointed to North Korea-linked actors, though attribution was never formally confirmed, according to Chainalysis's breakdown of the hack.
That hack, five months before this week's private beta, is why Velocity exists in its current form. New contracts, a new margin system, an audit due this week, and a deliberate slow rollout through alpha testing and a private beta before mainnet are all steps meant to avoid a repeat. Velocity has said the remaining audit work is mostly cleanup and closing out "nuisance bugs" rather than chasing anything structural.
The private beta stays limited to select partners and traders until that audit closes out and the team is confident the new contracts can handle real volume without cracking. Velocity says the audit report will be made public once it's done, which will be the clearest signal yet of how much the rebuild actually fixed.