News linked to both this project and an event.
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.
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.
Solv Protocol has announced the migration of over $700 million in tokenized Bitcoin assets to Chainlink's cross-chain protocol CCIP, and will gradually phase out LayerZero's bridging support across multiple chains. The migration involves core assets such as SolvBTC and xSolvBTC. Solv stated that the decision is based on the latest security reviews and recent cross-chain security incidents, and CCIP will become its standard cross-chain infrastructure. This move follows Kelp DAO's migration of approximately $290 million in assets to Chainlink, further strengthening the trend of "cross-chain infrastructure shifting toward security-first migration." (CoinDesk)
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.
Circle Ventures, Consensys, and Joseph Lubin have announced their support for the DeFi United initiative, aimed at mitigating losses caused by the Kelp DAO vulnerability. Circle Ventures is supporting the ecosystem by purchasing AAVE tokens. Consensys and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin have confirmed the provision of 30,000 ETH to DeFi United. To date, DeFi United has raised over 132,000 ETH, with a total value exceeding $300 million. These funds will be used to cover bad debts resulting from an attacker minting unbacked rsETH via the LayerZero bridge and borrowing assets on Aave. Previously, Aave proposed a donation of 25,000 ETH, while Lido DAO, Ether.fi, and Kelp have respectively proposed or pledged donations of 2,500 ETH, 5,000 ETH, and 2,000 ETH.
Kelp DAO released a community update on X, noting that the recent rsETH security incident has remained tense over the past several days. However, with support from partners and the broader community, discussions are progressing in a positive direction, and efforts to identify an appropriate resolution are being accelerated. The guiding principles have already been reflected in initial actions, and subsequent updates will continue along this path, aiming for a win-win outcome for all stakeholders. Over the past four days, the Kelp team has engaged in in-depth communication with partners and other relevant parties. Specific progress includes: the Arbitrum Security Council has taken measures to freeze the stolen funds, and the SEAL 911 emergency response team has swiftly stepped in to conduct preliminary investigations, providing a clear and objective analytical perspective on the incident. While some developments have not yet been fully disclosed, related work continues to advance steadily. Kelp DAO stated that its current priority is safeguarding user assets and strengthening the protocol itself. This incident is also viewed as a critical test—not only for the project but for the broader DeFi ecosystem—and key follow-up developments will continue to be shared via official channels.
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)
Odaily News Kelp DAO officially posted on X regarding the follow-up on the theft incident, stating that the cause was the compromise of two RPC nodes hosted by LayerZero, while the third RPC node suffered a DDoS attack. This was an attack targeting LayerZero's infrastructure; Kelp's own systems were not involved in the construction or operation of this infrastructure.The 1/1 DVN configuration is the scheme documented in LayerZero's documentation and is the default setting for all new OFT deployments. Kelp has been operating on LayerZero's infrastructure since January 2024 and has maintained open communication with the LayerZero team. During Kelp's expansion to Layer2, the DVN configuration was discussed, and the default configuration was explicitly confirmed as appropriate at that time.Kelp's current top priority is to protect user interests and prevent risks from spreading within the DeFi ecosystem. The team is collaborating with various parties in the ecosystem to analyze the impact, seek support, and explore all possible mitigation solutions.
Odaily News: A LayerZero cross-chain bridge related to Kelp DAO was hacked on Saturday, resulting in 116,500 rsETH worth $291 million flowing to a new wallet. The hacker used the illicitly obtained rsETH as collateral to borrow on Aave, causing the utilization rate of Aave's core lending pool to reach 100% and triggering a liquidity crunch. According to monitoring by 0xngmi, as of early Sunday, the net withdrawal amount from Aave had reached $6.2 billion. Kelp DAO has suspended the rsETH contracts on the Ethereum mainnet and several L2 networks. Affected by this, the price of the Aave token fell 16% to $90.13, and the price of Ethereum dropped 2% to $2,300. Currently, Justin Sun has posted on platform X attempting to negotiate with the hacker.
Odaily News On-chain data indicates that Kelp DAO's rsETH bridge protocol based on LayerZero is suspected of being exploited by hackers, resulting in a loss of 116,500 rsETH, valued at approximately $292 million.