News linked to both this project and an event.
According to on-chain analyst Ember (@EmberCN), the rsETH incident on April 18 resulted in a funding shortfall of approximately 68,900 ETH (around $160 million): the hacker collateralized rsETH to borrow 99,600 ETH; after Arbitrum recovered 30,700 ETH, the remaining funds were fully converted by the hacker into BTC. The incident has now entered the remediation phase. Aave is coordinating the establishment of a “DeFi United” relief fund, which has so far received cumulative donations totaling 13,500 ETH (approximately $31.45 million). Donors include Lido Finance (2,500 stETH), ether.fi Foundation (5,000 ETH), Aave founder Stani Kulechov (5,000 ETH), Golem Foundation (1,000 ETH), as well as LayerZero and Ink Foundation (amounts undisclosed).
Aave released the latest update on the rsETH security incident on the X platform, announcing that it has paused rsETH reserve-related operations on the Ethereum mainnet as well as networks including Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea. This measure is intended to prevent excess aETHrsETH from being withdrawn, thereby pushing positions close to the 95% liquidation threshold. This action aims to preserve as much capital as possible and reduce systemic risk while the asset recovery plan is underway. Aave stated that further progress and resolution plans will be continuously disclosed to the community.
Aave announced the latest developments regarding the rsETH security incident on X, stating that rsETH-related reserve operations have been suspended on Ethereum Mainnet and on networks including Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea. This measure aims to preserve as much capital as possible and mitigate systemic risk while the asset recovery plan is underway. Aave stated that it will continue to disclose subsequent updates and resolution plans to the community.
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 Yujin (@EmberCN), the KelpDAO hacker, over a period of approximately one and a half days, has converted nearly all 75,700 ETH (valued at roughly $175 million) on Ethereum into BTC—primarily via the cross-chain protocol THORChain. This money-laundering activity generated approximately $800 million in trading volume and $910,000 in platform fees for THORChain.
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.
According to an official post by Umbra (@UmbraCash), the privacy payment protocol Umbra was used to transfer funds related to a recent hacking incident, involving 349 ETH (approximately $800,000). Umbra stated that, as its privacy address system primarily protects the recipient’s identity—not the sender’s—it offers limited practical assistance to hackers attempting to obscure the origin of stolen funds. All stolen funds remain identifiable and traceable. The team has been in active communication and collaboration with security researchers. Umbra also noted that the protocol is powered entirely by autonomous smart contracts; thus, the team cannot prevent anyone from using the contracts or self-hosted frontend versions. In support of fund recovery efforts, the team placed the hosted frontend into maintenance mode at 6:45 a.m. ET on April 21. Access will be restored once it is confirmed that doing so will not impede the recovery process. The protocol itself continues operating normally, and all funds held within privacy addresses remain secure.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, the Venus attacker transferred 2,301 ETH (approximately $5.32 million) to address 0xa21…23A7f 11 hours ago. Subsequently, the funds were laundered in batches via Tornado Cash. Currently, there is still $17.45 million worth of ETH remaining on-chain.
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, the KelpDAO hacker began laundering and transferring ETH yesterday afternoon, and by now should have laundered 34,500 ETH (worth $80 million).Most of this ETH was cross-chain swapped into BTC via THORChain, which consequently earned a significant amount in "toll fees":1. THORChain's trading volume surged to $360 million over the past 24 hours, compared to an average daily volume of only $20 million previously.2. THORChain's platform fee revenue reached $420,000 over the past 24 hours, whereas its daily fee income was only $5,000 before.
According to on-chain analyst Specter (@SpecterAnalyst), the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor began laundering stolen funds from KelpDAO at approximately 3 a.m. Beijing time today—just three hours after the Arbitrum Council froze 30.7 ETH (approximately $71 million). The attackers split the remaining funds across three wallets, holding roughly 25,000 ETH (~$57.6 million), 25,700 ETH (~$59.2 million), and 25,000 ETH (~$57.9 million), respectively. The third wallet immediately initiated laundering operations and now holds only about 3,800 ETH (~$8 million). The majority of the funds were bridged to the Bitcoin network via THORChain, with approximately 99% flowing through this protocol. As a result, THORChain’s daily trading volume surged to $211 million—more than ten times its 30-day average—and generated roughly $189,000 in fees. During this laundering process, the illicit proceeds were also commingled with funds stolen in the BTC Turk (2025) and Bybit (2025) hacks. To date, approximately 442 BTC (~$33 million) linked to these incidents have been traced on the Bitcoin network, and over 400 addresses have been utilized throughout the entire laundering operation.
Odaily News According to monitoring by crypto analyst Ai Yi @ai_9684xtpa, the KelpDAO attacker has transferred 50,700 ETH to 2 new addresses, valued at approximately $118 million.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT updated that funds related to the KelpDAO attack have begun moving: approximately $1.5 million has been cross-chained from Ethereum Mainnet to the Bitcoin network via Thorchain, and roughly $78,000 has been transferred via Umbra. The attacking address initially sourced its funds from Tornado Cash, and fund laundering and cross-chain transfers are ongoing.
According to PeckShield’s monitoring, the KelpDAO attacker has transferred 75,700 ETH to two new addresses.
Odaily News KelpDAO stated in a post on X platform that it will continue to explore all feasible avenues to support rsETH holders and mitigate the impact of the related security incident on the DeFi ecosystem.It mentioned that over the past two days, the team has collaborated with the Arbitrum Security Council and multiple ecosystem participants, providing context on the incident and assisting with the assessment efforts, while also expressing gratitude for the coordination and support from teams like SEAL 911. Previously, the Arbitrum Security Council had frozen approximately 30,700 ETH, involving assets related to the KelpDAO attacker.
Odaily News According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the Arbitrum chain project team has frozen the 30,766 ETH ($70.97 million) that the KelpDAO hacker had placed on the Arbitrum chain. Through technical means, they transferred these 30,766 ETH from the hacker's wallet to the address 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000da0, which is controlled by the Arbitrum chain. After the recovery of these 30,766 ETH, the hacker still holds 75,700 ETH ($175 million) on the Ethereum chain.
According to an official Arbitrum announcement, the Arbitrum Security Council took emergency action at 11:26 PM ET on April 20, successfully freezing and transferring 30,766 ETH held at addresses associated with the KelpDAO vulnerability. This operation was conducted with assistance from law enforcement agencies, and the funds have been moved to an intermediate frozen wallet—rendering the original addresses unable to access the funds. The subsequent disposition of these funds will be coordinated by the Arbitrum governance mechanism in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. The Security Council stated that the entire operation had no impact whatsoever on any other on-chain state or Arbitrum users.
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.
Michael Egorov (@newmichwill), founder of Curve Finance, posted that recent security incidents in the DeFi space—triggered by centralized failure points—have occurred frequently and severely damaged the industry’s reputation. Citing examples such as Aave users being unable to withdraw funds following the rsETH exploit and the LayerZero cross-chain bridge hack, he emphasized that problems must be prevented *before* they occur—not addressed only after damage is done. He called on the industry to jointly establish DeFi security standards, proposing that the Ethereum Foundation and Solana Foundation take the lead in collaborating with projects across ecosystems, auditing firms, and risk-assessment teams to develop principles and specifications for secure system design—and suggesting that lessons could be drawn from traditional finance’s approaches to safeguarding centralized nodes.
Aave risk service provider LlamaRisk has released an incident report: On April 18, 2026, the attacker exploited a vulnerability in Kelp’s LayerZero V2 Unichain-to-Ethereum rsETH routing (a 1-of-1 DVN configuration flaw), forged inbound packets, and illicitly released 116,500 rsETH from the Ethereum-side adapter. Of these, 89,567 rsETH were deposited as collateral into multiple Aave V3 markets—including Ethereum Core and Arbitrum—enabling the borrowing of approximately 82,650 WETH (valued at ~$191 million) and 821 wstETH. Currently, only 40,373 rsETH remain in the adapter, while the total claimable rsETH on the remote chain stands at 152,577—creating a substantial shortfall. Depending on the loss allocation methodology, Aave faces two potential bad-debt scenarios: - Scenario 1 (global pro-rata allocation): Estimated bad debt of ~$123.7 million, with Ethereum Core bearing the greatest pressure; - Scenario 2 (loss confined to L2s): Estimated bad debt of ~$230.1 million, with Mantle facing a WETH reserve shortfall of up to 71.45% and Arbitrum facing a 26.67% shortfall. Following the incident, Aave Protocol Guardians and Risk Administrators immediately froze rsETH/wrsETH reserves across all 11 affected markets.
Odaily News Lido posted on platform X stating that on April 18th, the Kelp cross-chain bridge was attacked, resulting in the theft of approximately 116,500 rsETH (worth about $292 million). Subsequently, the related assets were frozen on lending markets such as Aave.Its treasury product EarnETH has approximately a 9% risk exposure (about $21.6 million) through leveraged rsETH/ETH positions on Aave. Meanwhile, rising borrowing utilization is creating cost pressure on other strategies. The team is advancing deleveraging and reducing overall risk.Lido pointed out that the final impact of the rsETH positions depends on the subsequent handling by Kelp, LayerZero, and Aave, including loss sharing, asset recovery, and bad debt processing.Regarding risk mitigation, EarnETH can, if necessary, activate a $3 million "first-loss protection mechanism" (provided by the DAO treasury) to cover losses. The specific scale of its use is still pending further evaluation. Currently, the treasury has suspended deposits and withdrawals to ensure fairness and complete loss assessment. If the handling process is slow, redemption channels may be reopened based on the worst-case loss expectations.The official emphasized that stETH and wstETH are unaffected, and the core staking protocol was not involved in this incident.