The hacker behind the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit has laundered approximately $220 million in stolen funds within six weeks, utilizing crypto mixers Wasabi and Tornado Cash. While $71 million remains frozen, the laundering activity reduces recovery chances. Crypto hacks decreased in May, but DeFi security concerns persist.
Kelp DAO restores restaked Ether token after $293 million exploit by North Korea's Lazarus Group
Aave has restored loan-to-value ratios for wrapped Ether (WETH), allowing users to borrow against it again. This marks a key step in the Kelp DAO exploit recovery plan, which saw $195 million in bad debt on Aave after hackers stole restaked Ether tokens.
Lombard Finance is migrating over $1 billion in Bitcoin-backed tokens from LayerZero to Chainlink's CCIP, citing security concerns after the Kelp DAO exploit. Kraken made a similar move.
Kraken migrates its $266M market cap wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC) from LayerZero to Chainlink's CCIP after LayerZero's role in a $292M Kelp DAO exploit, citing enterprise-grade security.
Ethereum liquid restaking platform Kelp, in conjunction with Aave, has burned the exploiter's rsETH tokens and is progressively refilling the backing for its liquid staking token, aiming to restore user funds after a $293 million hack.
Kelp DAO has burned the exploiter’s tokens and outlined a two-week plan to refill rsETH through Aave’s Recovery Guardian multisig wallet.
Solv Protocol and other DeFi projects are migrating to Chainlink infrastructure after the $293 million exploit exposed risks in third-party bridge and oracle setups.
Arbitrum DAO voted to release the Kelp exploit funds, but a U.S. Court restraining notice has put the approved transfer in legal jeopardy.
Solv Protocol will move its tokenized Bitcoin infrastructure to Chainlink, following Kelp DAO's lead after it blamed LayerZero for a hack.
Galaxy Digital’s Thaddeus Pinakiewicz noted that Aave is now only 10% short of recovering from the bad debt that hit its lending protocol after the Kelp DAO hack.
Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder and CEO of LayerZero, disputes Kelp DAO’s accusations and said a postmortem by external security firms will be published soon.
A federal case over frozen crypto could determine whether DeFi recovery funds can be seized to satisfy unrelated judgments.
DeFi United has raised 132,650 ETH (~$303 million) to restore rsETH following Kelp DAO's $290 million exploit on April 18. Contributions came from Consensys (30,000 ETH) and Avalanche Foundation. The recovery effort depends on governance votes across multiple DeFi platforms, with an Arbitrum proposal expected to take approximately 49 days.
The wallet linked to the Kelp DAO exploit appears to have laundered most of the $175 million worth of stolen Ether, while another $71 million remains frozen by Arbitrum’s security council.
The wallet linked to the Kelp DAO exploit appears to have laundered most of the $175 million worth of stolen Ether, while another $71 million remains frozen by Arbitrum’s security council.
Aave subit une crise majeure avec 15,1 milliards de dollars de retraits en trois jours et demi, faisant chuter ses dépôts de 48,5 à 30,7 milliards. L'origine : l'exploitation d'une faille sur le pont Kelp DAO rsETH le 18 avril, permettant à un attaquant d'emprunter 200 millions de dollars avec des garanties sans valeur. Les marchés USDT et USDC sont saturés à 100%, bloquant tout retrait et empêchant les liquidations.
Aave’s supplied balance has tanked since the Kelp DAO bridge exploit, as users pull funds amid uncertainty over how much of the rsETH-linked shortfall the protocol will ultimately absorb.
Kelp DAO lost $292 million in a hack linked to North Korean state-backed actors, marking the largest crypto exploit of 2025. The incident, involving a configuration failure in LayerZero's infrastructure, has reignited industry debates over centralized asset freezing.
The Kelp DAO attacker has moved $175 million of stolen Ether in an apparent bid to start laundering it after the $290 million exploit.
Aave's risk management provider LlamaRisk outlined two scenarios for how the $293M Kelp DAO exploit could impact the DeFi ecosystem. Scenario one spreads losses across all rsETH holders resulting in $123.7M bad debt with 15% depeg risk. Scenario two shifts losses to L2 networks creating $230.1M bad debt. Nearly $10B has exited Aave since the Saturday exploit, while Aave's $181M treasury could help cover losses.
Hackers stole over $290 million in cryptocurrency from Kelp DAO, a yield-generating protocol, over the weekend. LayerZero, whose bridge was exploited in the attack, accused North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking group by Monday, citing preliminary indicators. This marks the largest crypto theft of 2026, following April's $285 million hack of crypto exchange Drift. The attackers exploited Kelp's security configuration that lacked multi-verification requirements for transactions.
Hackers stole over $290 million in cryptocurrency from Kelp DAO over the weekend, making it the largest crypto theft of 2026 so far. LayerZero, whose bridge was exploited in the attack, accused North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking group, citing preliminary indicators. The attackers exploited a security configuration that did not require multiple verifications for transactions. Kelp DAO has pushed back against LayerZero's blame.
LayerZero claims Kelp DAO's inadequate 1/1 DVN configuration enabled attackers to steal $290 million in rsETH, with preliminary signs pointing to North Korea-linked threat actors. The exploit used stolen funds as collateral on Aave, creating $195 million in bad debt and causing Aave's TVL to drop by $8.9 billion. LayerZero argues the incident reflects an unsafe application configuration rather than a protocol compromise, while debate continues over who should absorb losses.
