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)
following the $292 million exploit of Kelp DAO's LayerZero bridge, the security of cross-chain infrastructure has once again come under scrutiny. DeFi protocols Kelp DAO, Solv Protocol, Re, and crypto exchange Kraken have all taken similar migration measures, with the total value of this outflow reaching approximately $4 billion.Decentralized finance protocol Lombard has become the latest project to join the migration wave, announcing a gradual phase-out of LayerZero and the migration of over $1 billion in Bitcoin collateral assets to Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). Bitcoin-related tokens issued by Lombard include LBTC and BTC.b. It is reported that Lombard's initial migration assets cover the Solana, Etherlink, Berachain, Corn, and TAC chains, while the use of LayerZero on Morph and Swell will also be terminated. As of now, LayerZero has not responded to requests for comment. (CoinDesk)
in April 2026, two major DeFi attacks on Drift Protocol and Kelp DAO resulted in losses of nearly $600 million, triggering approximately $9 billion in capital outflows from protocols like Aave. TRM Labs investigator Nick Carlsen stated that a hacker group suspected to be linked to North Korea has allegedly used AI to assist in target selection and attack path design. Failsafe CEO Aneirin Flynn said that AI has compressed the time for discovering blockchain vulnerabilities from months to days or even hours. The report noted that Anthropic has not fully opened its AI model Mythos due to cybersecurity risks, claiming the model has the capability to discover large-scale zero-day vulnerabilities. Its research indicates that over half of blockchain attacks in 2025 could theoretically be completed autonomously by AI. (Bloomberg)
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 Cointelegraph, a New York judge has postponed the hearing on Aave’s emergency motion to unfreeze approximately $71 million worth of ETH and ordered Aave and Gerstein Harrow LLP to submit additional case briefs. A new hearing is scheduled for June 5. The court noted that Aave previously failed to adequately explain why users’ funds would suffer “derivative losses” if the restraining order remained in effect. The assets in question are linked to the Kelp DAO hack, which involved approximately $293 million and was previously frozen by Arbitrum. The judge also directed both parties to further clarify several legal issues, including the applicable law governing the hacker’s transactions, the legal distinction between fraud and theft, the priority ranking of creditors’ claims, the applicability of constructive trust, and whether assets can be proportionally returned to victims.
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 on-chain data platform Santiment (@SantimentData), as Bitcoin’s price reclaimed the $80,000 level, the ratio of bullish-to-bearish comments on social media rose to 1.37:1.00—the highest in nearly four months—signaling a notable surge in market optimism. However, Santiment cautions that historically, sharp increases in bullish sentiment often serve as warning signs rather than buy signals. When retail FOMO dominates social media discussions, traders tend to enter positions late in the trend, raising the likelihood of local tops, profit-taking, and sudden price volatility. Santiment notes that peak market euphoria frequently coincides with the onset of waning momentum. By comparison, following the Kelp DAO vulnerability incident in mid-April, social sentiment plunged into deeply bearish territory; the exit of “weak-handed investors” instead laid a healthier foundation for the current rally. With sentiment now having reversed dramatically, Santiment advises traders to remain vigilant against potential risks stemming from excessive leverage and overly concentrated positions.
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.
Kelp DAO has announced the migration of its restaking token rsETH to Chainlink CCIP, citing enhanced security as the reason for this move. Previously, a cross-chain bridge built by Kelp DAO on LayerZero was attacked on April 18, with hackers stealing approximately 116,500 rsETH, valued at around $292 million, and using the assets as collateral to borrow WETH on Aave v3.Regarding the cause of the vulnerability, LayerZero previously stated that the issue stemmed from Kelp DAO using a single DVN verification path configuration rather than multiple independent verifications. Kelp DAO responded that this configuration was the default setting and that LayerZero had confirmed its security without flagging any related risks. LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino subsequently denied this claim, stating that Kelp DAO had proactively modified the default multi-DVN configuration. Both parties continue to dispute responsibility for the incident. (Cointelegraph)
According to The Block, Kelp DAO will abandon LayerZero and adopt Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as its cross-chain infrastructure, along with Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard. Previously, in April, Kelp DAO suffered a cross-chain bridge attack totaling approximately $292 million; the attackers are suspected to be linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group and exploited the single-validator configuration of the LayerZero-powered OFT cross-chain bridge to steal 116,500 rsETH. Chainlink states that its CCIP requires at least 16 independent node operators to validate cross-chain transactions.
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
According to Cointelegraph, the Arbitrum Committee voted to unfreeze $71 million worth of Ethereum to mitigate the $290 million loss caused by the Kelp DAO vulnerability.
Within less than three weeks, 12 protocols were hacked for over $606 million. The Drift incident resulted in losses of $285 million, and the Kelp DAO incident caused $292 million in losses—these two attacks together accounted for approximately 95% of the total losses.
: 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.
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.
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.
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.