News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily, Mitchell Amador, CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi, stated at the WAIB Summit that new AI models such as Claude Opus 4.8 and ChatGPT 5.5 are shifting the balance of cybersecurity offense and defense in favor of attackers, leading to a resurgence in crypto hacks in 2026. Data from DefiLlama shows that in April 2026, illicit actors stole over $634 million from crypto platforms, the highest monthly total since the Bybit hack in February 2025 drove losses of approximately $1.4 billion.Amador stated that the crypto industry is in a critical survival period for the next three to four years until security teams leverage similar AI models to build codebases that attackers cannot breach; if the industry adopts more crowd-sourced security solutions, this timeline could be shortened to within two years. The latest Claude Mythos model, Fable 5, from AI company Anthropic, previously raised concerns about accelerating the ability to exploit crypto vulnerabilities.Anthropic stated that Fable 5 has safeguards in place that will redirect topics related to cybersecurity and similar fields to Claude Opus 4.8. On April 19, an attacker transferred approximately 116,500 restaked Ethereum (rsETH) from Kelp DAO's LayerZero-based rsETH bridge, valued at around $290 million to $293 million at the time. Cross-chain protocol LayerZero stated that the 1/1 decentralized verification network configuration of Kelp DAO relied on a single verification path for processing cross-chain messages, creating a single point of failure. (Cointelegraph)
in April this year, KelpDAO's LayerZero bridge was exploited in a $292 million vulnerability attack, triggering an $8.45 billion deposit run on Aave within 48 hours, marking the largest capital outflow event in decentralized finance (DeFi) history. Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that the design of Aave V3 withstood the market test, demonstrating the network's "resilience." However, independent data indicates that Aave's survival primarily relied on $300 million in emergency rescue, including a 25,000 ETH guarantee from the Aave DAO and a personal injection of 5,000 ETH (approximately $8.4 million) by Kulechov.Kulechov attributed the vulnerability to third-party infrastructure rather than core smart contracts. However, analysts pointed out that this incident exposed deficiencies in Aave's risk architecture and insurance mechanisms, leading the platform to incur significant bad debt (approximately $123.7 million in wETH). To prevent future bridge failures from triggering systemic bank runs, Aave V4 will adopt a modular "hub-and-spoke" architecture, enabling local risk auto-adjustment and collateral freezing. (CoinDesk)
DeFi protocol Radiant has announced that after 18 months of continuous effort following a hack attack in October 2024, the DAO no longer has a viable path to continue operations and will gradually enter a "sunsetting" phase.Radiant stated that there is currently no progress in fund recovery, no new capital injection, and a lack of funds and development space to maintain normal operations. Therefore, it cannot proceed with responsible long-term operation.According to the plan, Radiant will transition to maintenance mode: the frontend interface will continue to run, on-chain smart contracts will remain accessible, and users can still withdraw, repay, and manage positions. However, the project will halt all new feature development, upgrades, and expansions. At the same time, the borrowing cap will be set to zero, incentives for issuing the RDNT token will cease, and treasury funds will be used solely to maintain basic operations. The project's future focus will be entirely on user asset security, fund recovery, and an orderly liquidation process.Radiant stated that efforts to recover assets will continue, and the relevant recovery portal will remain open. Any future recovered funds will be returned to affected users, but the outcome of the recovery remains uncertain and may take a long time. Although operations are gradually ceasing, on-chain contracts will remain available, and users need to manage their own risks and gradually exit their positions.
According to an official announcement, KelpDAO stated that the final batch of 20,373.72 rsETH tokens was transferred earlier today to the rsETH OFT adapter, completing the operational phase of the rsETH recovery plan.
Odaily Odaily News Gate Research recently released its "April 2026 Cryptocurrency Market Review" report, indicating that the overall cryptocurrency market saw a volatile upward trend in April, with total market capitalization significantly higher than in March. BTC and ETH ETF trading volumes maintained high volatility overall. The report shows continued divergence in activity across major public chain ecosystems. Solana's daily transaction volume remained in the range of approximately 90 million to 110 million transactions, maintaining its leading position.Regarding trending sectors, the report notes that Pokemon TCG RWA has become one of the fastest-growing on-chain RWA sub-sectors, entering a second explosive growth phase in April. Major trading platforms saw monthly trading volumes exceed $220 million, with weekly revenue briefly approaching $6 million, setting new historical records. Meanwhile, Aave experienced its most severe liquidity crisis ever in April, with TVL outflows reaching tens of billions of dollars within a few days and net outflows exceeding $9 billion for the entire month.In terms of fundraising and security incidents, the Web3 industry completed 51 financing rounds in April, totaling approximately $834 million, with capital further concentrating on leading financial and infrastructure tracks. Among these, Payward ranked first for the month with a $200 million financing round. On the security front, Web3 security incidents in April resulted in losses of approximately $306 million, a month-over-month increase of about 858%, primarily driven by a single cross-chain infrastructure attack on Kelp DAO worth approximately $293 million. The report suggests that against the backdrop of a recovering market, on-chain activity and capital liquidity are both increasing simultaneously. However, the security risks associated with cross-chain infrastructure and high-leverage protocols remain worthy of continued attention.
Odaily News: Margaret Garnett, a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan, has approved Aave's asset recovery proposal, allowing the transfer of approximately $71 million in ETH previously frozen on Arbitrum and linked to North Korean-linked attacks, to a wallet controlled by Aave LLC, while preserving the legal claims of terrorism victim plaintiffs over the funds. The ruling also amended the earlier freeze notice against the Arbitrum DAO, permitting the transfer to be executed through an on-chain governance vote and exempting those who propose, vote on, or participate in the transfer from liability under the freeze order. The transfer is still subject to an official vote by Arbitrum's on-chain governance. (CoinDesk)
According to The Block, the Arbitrum DAO voted to release 30,765.6 ETH (approximately $70 million), previously frozen, to support the DeFi United initiative—aimed at offsetting Kelp DAO’s $292 million exploit loss last month. The vote passed with 90.96% support (182.2 million votes). The attack was allegedly carried out by the North Korean Lazarus hacking group, which exploited a vulnerability in LayerZero’s OFT cross-chain bridge—a single-validator configuration—which allowed attackers to steal 116,500 rsETH and pledge most of the stolen assets as collateral on Aave, resulting in roughly $190 million in bad debt. DeFi United has secured contributions from multiple parties, including 30,000 ETH from Consensys and Joseph Lubin, a 30,000-ETH loan from Mantle, and 5,000 ETH from LayerZero.
Aave has announced the completion of the liquidation of the remaining rsETH position belonging to the Kelp DAO attacker. The related collateral assets will be transferred to the Recovery Guardian multi-signature wallet managed by DeFi United, to be used for restoring rsETH reserves and compensating affected users.This liquidation is part of the recovery plan following the previous $292 million attack incident. Aave had previously passed a governance vote to temporarily adjust the rsETH oracle price in order to create bad debt in the attacker's position and trigger liquidation. The relevant parameters will be restored upon completion of the liquidation. Previously, the attacker exploited the Kelp DAO cross-chain bridge based on LayerZero to forge 116,500 unbacked rsETH and borrowed ETH from protocols such as Aave and Compound. Currently, the recovery funds managed by DeFi United have exceeded $320 million.
According to Cointelegraph, U.S. law firm Gerstein Harrow LLP has filed an application with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking a temporary restraining order and three writs of execution to prevent the Arbitrum DAO from transferring 30,766 ETH (valued at approximately $73 million) frozen following the Kelp vulnerability. The firm argues that its clients obtained default judgments against North Korea in U.S. courts in 2010, 2015, and 2016, entitling them to roughly $877 million in compensation—and contends that the stolen ETH constitutes North Korean-linked assets that should be used to satisfy those judgments. Kelp DAO suffered a $292 million hack on April 18; the attacker was identified as TraderTraitor, a subgroup of the North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus Group. Aave Labs previously proposed unfreezing the seized funds and transferring them into the “DeFi United” fund to compensate rsETH holders—but this legal action by Gerstein Harrow may significantly delay compensation for victims. Members of the Arbitrum DAO community have criticized the move, arguing it shifts the burden of North Korea’s debts onto another set of victims, thereby exacerbating the original harm. Gerstein Harrow had previously pursued litigation related to the 2023 Heco Bridge hack involving Teth
: Arbitrum DAO has initiated a governance vote to release the previously frozen 30,766 ETH to support DeFi United, a recovery plan following the Kelp DAO attack.These assets, worth approximately $71.1 million, were frozen by the Arbitrum Security Council on April 20. They were originally funds transferred to the Arbitrum network by the attacker. If the proposal passes, it will become the largest single source of funding for the DeFi United plan.In the early stage of voting, 16.9 million ARB have already been cast in support. Currently, there are no opposing votes. The voting is set to continue until May 7.
According to Odaily, on-chain data shows that the Lista DAO core lock contract (Vote-escrowed Lista), labeled by Arkham, transferred funds to address 0xFEf45b8B5C52f442a8f866f8Ea9A10c4C739BF36 a few minutes ago. The address received approximately 7.023 million LISTA tokens, with a total value of around $616,800. Previously, after this address received LISTA tokens, it would transfer them to the Binance deposit address.Currently, the circulating supply of LISTA is 354.15 million, and the total amount received by this address accounts for approximately 1.98% of the circulating supply. LISTA is currently priced at $0.08722, up 3.04% in the past 24 hours, with a circulating market cap of approximately $30.88 million.
Odaily报道 According to Ai Yi monitoring, a Galaxy Digital OTC-related address (0x16F...1Fde) has deposited 15,000 ETH, worth $34.74 million, to an exchange. These funds originated from 38,000 ETH withdrawn from Aave a week ago, which was the day when Kelp DAO was attacked, causing Aave to potentially face bad debt.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Aunt (@ai_9684xtpa), the address 0xb5E…Fc24e deposited a total of 1.397 million UNI tokens—worth approximately $4.6 million—into three exchanges two hours ago. Notably, the Bybit deposit address has had multiple interactions with the DeFi crypto fund DeFiance Capital, which is an investor in both Aave and LayerZero—two entities closely linked to the recent Kelp DAO hack incident.
According to The Block, JPMorgan analysts noted in their latest report that ongoing DeFi security vulnerabilities and stagnant growth in total value locked (TVL) continue to constrain institutional enthusiasm for the DeFi sector. Recently, Kelp DAO’s cross-chain bridge suffered a major attack, during which the attacker minted $292 million worth of uncollateralized rsETH tokens and borrowed real ETH on Aave, resulting in approximately $230 million in bad debt. This caused DeFi TVL to evaporate by roughly $20 billion within several days. LayerZero and blockchain security researchers have attributed this attack to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group; some of the stolen funds have been frozen, while the rest remain in circulation. Analysts also pointed out that DeFi TVL denominated in ETH has remained range-bound for an extended period, raising market concerns about whether DeFi can achieve organic growth sufficient to support institutional adoption. Furthermore, following each security incident, users tend to shift funds into USDT as a safe-haven asset—yet this trend has not yet significantly driven USDT’s market capitalization growth.
Lido has released an update regarding the Kelp security incident, stating that its Earn-series vaults are working with the management team to address the issue, focusing on two key risk areas: rsETH exposure and tightening liquidity in lending markets. Lido emphasizes that its core staking protocol remains unaffected, and both stETH and wstETH remain secure and stable. Currently, only the EarnETH vault holds approximately 9% of its TVL in rsETH exposure; related deposits and withdrawals have been suspended by the management team pending resolution. Of the ~$70 million in ETH stolen in the earlier attack, roughly $70 million has already been recovered; asset recovery and loss allocation efforts are ongoing. To mitigate liquidity pressure, the management team has reduced leverage and optimized position structures, significantly decreasing wETH debt exposure. Should losses ultimately materialize, EarnETH will activate its $3 million “first-loss protection mechanism,” funded by the DAO. Other vaults remain unaffected: DVV and EarnUSD are operating normally. The GGV sub-vault is currently experiencing negative yields due to a combination of recursive staking strategies and rising borrowing rates, but active adjustments are underway. Users’ previously submitted withdrawal requests will be processed at pre-incident valuations.
According to on-chain analyst PeckShield (@PeckShieldAlert), the KelpDAO attacker has transferred ETH from Ethereum to Arbitrum via the Across Protocol, swapped it for USDT, and then routed the funds to TRON DAO via LayerZero.
Odaily News Wall Street investment bank Jefferies' analysis indicates that the approximately $293 million attack on Kelp DAO on April 18 exposed critical infrastructure risks, which may prompt traditional financial institutions to reassess the pace of blockchain and tokenization advancement.Jefferies believes the attacker triggered market sell-offs and liquidity stress by minting unbacked tokens and borrowing across platforms. The incident is suspected to be potentially linked to the Lazarus Group and also highlights the single point of failure in the validation mechanisms of cross-chain bridges. As institutions accelerate the tokenization of assets (such as funds, bonds, and deposits), related risks may cause some banks and asset management firms to temporarily pause deployments, prioritizing a review of system security. Especially in scenarios reliant on cross-chain infrastructure, security vulnerabilities could lead to market fragmentation, undermining the practical utility of tokenized assets.Despite short-term confidence being shaken, Jefferies still emphasizes that the long-term trend remains unchanged. Against the backdrop of regulatory progress and continuous infrastructure improvement, use cases like stablecoins still hold growth potential. However, the industry as a whole is still in its early development stage and requires time to enhance system robustness. (CoinDesk)
According to monitoring by PeckShield, the Kelp DAO attacker transferred 30,765 ETH (approximately $70.92 million) to a special address starting with 0x00000, suspected to be a burning action.
According to on-chain analyst Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens), Kelp DAO lost approximately $294 million in the cross-chain bridge exploit. As a result, $ZRO dropped from $2 to $1.40. A whale holding a long $ZRO position on HyperLiquid was partially liquidated, incurring a loss of $2.88 million. The whale still holds the position, with an unrealized loss exceeding $750,000 and a total loss of approximately $28.98 million.
According to CoinDesk, Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-based cross-chain bridge was attacked, with the attacker withdrawing 116,500 rsETH—worth approximately $292 million at current prices, or roughly 18% of its circulating supply. This incident has become the largest DeFi attack of 2026 to date. In response, Aave, SparkLend, and Fluid have frozen rsETH-related markets, and Lido Finance has suspended new deposits into its earnETH product. Kelp DAO stated it is jointly investigating the incident with LayerZero, auditing firms, and external security experts.