One of the major advantages of blockchain technology is its capacity to provide distinct investment opportunities. Drift seeks to harness this potential by developing an innovative Decentralized Exchange (DEX). This project will integrate several valuable features, such as backstop Automated Market Maker (AMM) liquidity and perpetual futures.

In this article, let’s have a quick overview of Drift and see how to buy DRIFT in India on India’s most trusted crypto exchange.

What is Drift?

Drift (DRIFT) is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) on the Solana blockchain, engineered to overcome the limitations of conventional on-chain exchanges while delivering exceptional efficiency, liquidity, and accessibility. As one of the largest open-source perpetual futures DEXs on Solana, Drift has experienced significant growth since its launch in 2021. It has amassed over $350 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), attracted more than 175,000 traders, and achieved a cumulative trading volume surpassing $20 billion.

How Does Drift (DRIFT) Work?

Liquidity Mechanisms

Drift Protocol’s robust and innovative architecture is designed to maximize efficiency, incentivize market participation, and deliver an exceptional user experience.

Three primary liquidity mechanisms support trades on Drift Protocol:

• Just-in-Time (JIT) Auction Liquidity: Before each transaction, market makers compete to provide liquidity through short-term auctions, ensuring fast and efficient order fulfillment.
• Limit Orderbook Liquidity: Drift’s decentralized order book (DLOB) aggregates limit orders placed by makers, facilitating continuous liquidity provision and price discovery.
• AMM Liquidity: Drift’s virtual Automated Market Maker (AMM) acts as a constant liquidity provider, supplementing market liquidity when needed and maintaining optimal trading conditions.

Key Features of DRIFT

Drift offers robust features to enhance the trading experience, utilizing the Solana blockchain’s power of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

Here are the standout features of this Solana-based DEX:

• Spot Trading  

Drift supports spot trading, allowing users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies at current market prices. This feature provides a decentralized and efficient method for managing digital assets and market participation.

• Perpetual Futures Trading  

Drift enables perpetual futures contracts, allowing traders to hold long or short positions without expiration dates. This offers continuous trading opportunities and flexibility in managing positions and strategies.

• Borrowing and Lending

Drift offers borrowing and lending services, enabling users to lend assets for interest or borrow to enhance trading strategies. This is essential for leveraging positions or generating passive income from holdings.

• Staking

Users can stake assets on Drift to earn rewards. Staking into an insurance fund vault allows users to earn a share of fees from perpetual trades, borrows, and liquidations.

• Liquidity Pools

Drift provides robust liquidity through incentivized liquidity pools, ensuring minimal slippage for large orders. Users can participate as liquidity providers and earn rewards for their contributions.

• High-Speed, Low-Cost Transactions

Leveraging Solana’s blockchain, Drift benefits from high transaction speeds and low fees, ensuring swift and cost-effective trades and making the platform accessible and efficient for all users.

• User-Friendly Interface

Drift’s platform is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, catering to newbie and experienced traders. Comprehensive analytics tools and a clean interface help users make informed decisions and easily navigate the platform.

DRIFT Tokenomics

A total of 1 billion DRIFT governance tokens will be distributed over five years, with the majority (over 50%) allocated to the community.

Distribution Breakdown:

• Community – 53%

The community allocation supports active users on Drift, including stakers and algorithmic traders, through trading rewards, future airdrops, and liquidity incentives. The Futarchy DAO will also fund developer tools and public awareness campaigns.

Ecosystem Development and Trading Rewards – 43%

This allocation focuses on the development of the ecosystem and incentivizing trading activity to grow Drift’s user base and enhance its offerings.

Launch Airdrop – 10%

10% of DRIFT tokens are reserved for an initial airdrop to reward existing Drift users for their historical contributions. This includes long-standing traders, participants in programs like BAL or Insurance Fund, depositors, and liquidity providers.

• Protocol Development – 25%

Allocated for current and future contributors to develop Drift Protocol’s tools, products, and infrastructure. This includes a treasury fund for protocol development, with core team tokens, subject to an 18-month lock-up and a subsequent 18-month vesting period.

• Strategic Participants – 22%

This allocation honors key partners who have supported and guided Drift’s development. Their contributions have been crucial in advising on and supporting critical infrastructure.

Buying Drift (DRIFT) in India

Below are a few simple steps you can follow and buy the DRIFT tokens in India with WazirX, India’s most trusted and widely used crypto exchange.

The best way to buy DRIFT tokens is by depositing INR in your WazirX wallet. Alternatively, you can also buy DRIFT using P2P trade; to get answers to all your queries related to the P2P trade, click here!

Step 1 – Sign-Up on the WazirX platform

To begin buying and selling DRIFT, you must sign up for an account on the WazirX platform. If you already have an account, you can log in directly.

For your reference, here’s how you can open an account on WazirX.

Step 2 – Set up your account security by verifying your email address.

This step is about verifying your email address. After you sign up on the WazirX platform, you’ll get a verification link on your registered email. By clicking on that link, you’ll get two options to ensure the security of your account – the authenticator app and mobile SMS.

Note: The authenticator app is a more secure way to stay safe when compared to mobile SMS because there’s a risk of delayed reception or SIM card hacking.

Step 3 – Complete the KYC process.

After choosing your country, you can proceed with completing the KYC process. Click here for a detailed overview.

Note: You must complete your KYC to be able to trade P2P or withdraw funds on the WazirX app.

Step 4 – Add funds to your WazirX wallet.

To add funds, simply go to your account on the WazirX app or web. Click on “Funds” and then on “Deposit INR.”

You can deposit INR using any mode (NEFT/ RTGS/ IMPS).

You can also buy DRIFT through P2P to the WazirX wallet. The DRIFT will act as funds to help you buy your favorite cryptos.

Step 5 – Finally, buy DRIFT on WazirX.

You can now easily purchase DRIFT tokens using INR Deposits. In the case of P2P trade, check DRIFT to USDT here.

After logging in to your WazirX account, you can choose INR from the “Exchange” tab. You can also check all the price charts, order book data, and an order input form on the right side of the screen.

Click “Buy” after entering the amount and checking the total INR amount to be paid.

Your order will be placed according to the price you have input. And, in the case of P2P trade, a seller willing to sell at a price will be notified, and then you can exchange the tokens using P2P.

The order might take a few minutes to complete, but as soon as it is executed, you will receive the DRIFT Tokens you purchased in your WazirX wallet.

Happy Trading!

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency is not a legal tender and is currently unregulated. Kindly ensure that you undertake sufficient risk assessment when trading cryptocurrencies as they are often subject to high price volatility. The information provided in this section doesn't represent any investment advice or WazirX's official position. WazirX reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend or change this blog post at any time and for any reasons without prior notice.