Drift Launches Low Latency, Gasless Trading Through Swift Protocol

Drift Protocol, a popular Solana perpetual exchange netting over $57B in cumulative volume, has upped its game, launching a timely new trading standard.

Boasting faster fills, reduced slippage, and gasless trades, the Swift protocol launch comes just one day after the testnet launch of Bullet, a Solana network extension specifically designed for traders.

What is the Swift trading standard, and how is it different from the Drift Protocol users know?

What is Swift Protocol?

Swift protocol is Drift’s answer to some of modern DeFi’s greatest challenges: sluggish trade execution and fractured, insubstantial liquidity. Aggregating liquidity from multiple sources, Swift is an optimized execution layer designed for efficient trading.

Previously, traders on Drift would need to submit a transaction directly to the Solana blockchain to place an order. Under Swift’s new model, traders will sign a message containing their order parameters offchain, sending it directly to keepers and market makers.

Keepers and MMs are responsible for bundling traders’ messages into their own transactions, which are broadcast to the blockchain for execution. Traders are no longer required to place their trades onchain, meaning orders are filled faster keepers and MMs pay gas fees on behalf of traders.

Beyond fast, gasless trades, Swift reduces slippage and MEV risks through aggregation. Swift pulls liquidity from a multitude of sources across Drift Protocol, including the Drift AMM, orderbook, and JIT (Just-in-Time) auctions.

Swift Protocol is live in Drift Protocol perps markets, with the new standard expected to be rolled out to spot markets in the near future.

Solana Perps Wars Heat Up

With the Hyperliquid Layer-1 dominating perps markets across the crypto industry, Solana DeFi teams are rapidly innovating to bring traders back to the network. Solana perps protocols are eagerly shipping dramatic updates, igniting fierce competition between platforms. 

Traders are actively searching for alternative trading platforms to Hyperliquid, after a trader took advantage of the protocol’s liquidation engine, causing a $4M loss to the HLP vault. Hyperliquid has since dropped its maximum leverage for greater security, allowing competitors to siphon market share.

Drift Protocol’s Swift launch was preceded by a similar launch from rival Solana-based perps platform, Bullet. Where Drift Protocol exists on the Layer-1, Bullet has built out a Solana network extension specifically designed for traders. 

Both platforms promise some of the fastest transaction execution speeds in the industry, although Bullet will still require traders to pay network gas fees.

Formerly known as Zeta Markets, Bullet announced the launch of its testnet, with the network extension expected to go live in Q2, 2025.

$DRIFT Unmoved by New Product Launch

Despite the excitement surrounding Drift Protocol’s new trading standard, markets have been unresponsive. 

$DRIFT is up ~1% since the announcement, indicating that traders and investors are reluctant to take positions on the news. However, this is likely due to growing uncertainty throughout crypto markets rather than a lack of confidence in Drift itself.

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