LayerZero Pledges 10,000 ETH to DeFi United as Industry Rallies Behind Kelp DAO Recovery

TLDR:

• LayerZero Labs is donating 5,000 ETH and depositing another 5,000 ETH into Aave to strengthen market liquidity.
• The $292M Kelp DAO exploit involved an RPC-poisoning attack that forged cross-chain messages via LayerZero’s DVN.
• DeFi United has raised over $300M in ETH and stablecoins, with major contributors including Consensys and Arbitrum DAO.
• Total value locked across DeFi fell from $95B to $80B following the Kelp DAO hack, reflecting broad market disruption.

LayerZero Labs has committed over 10,000 ETH to the DeFi United recovery initiative, led by Aave, following the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit.

The crypto infrastructure provider will donate 5,000 ETH directly and deposit another 5,000 ETH into Aave markets.

This contribution, valued at roughly $23 million, places LayerZero among the largest participants in the industry-wide effort to restore rsETH backing after the April 18 attack.

LayerZero’s Contribution to DeFi United

LayerZero’s pledge comes approximately five days after the company first announced its intent to join a recovery effort.

The firm will also work to deepen liquidity for GHO, the native stablecoin on Aave. This move signals a broader commitment beyond a simple financial donation.

LayerZero confirmed the details in an official post on X, stating it is “donating 5,000 ETH to DeFi United, depositing an additional 5,000 ETH to strengthen Aave markets liquidity, and strategically deepening GHO liquidity.”

LayerZero also confirmed plans to continue working with Aave and other DeFi participants. The focus will be on how Omnichain Fungible Tokens (OFTs) should be designed and configured for use in lending markets. This collaboration could shape future standards across the ecosystem.

The exploit on April 18 involved a sophisticated RPC-poisoning attack on LayerZero’s Decentralized Verifier Network.

Attackers forged a cross-chain message, releasing unbacked rsETH from Kelp’s LayerZero-powered bridge adapter on Ethereum. Around 107,000 rsETH then entered lending positions on Aave, creating substantial bad debt.

Industry Response and Recovery Progress

DeFi United has now raised over $300 million in ETH and stablecoins from dozens of protocols and individuals. Arbitrum DAO has a pending vote to release 30,765 ETH toward the effort.

Consensys and Joseph Lubin together are contributing 30,000 ETH, matched by a low-interest loan from Mantle.

Aave DAO also has a pending proposal to approve a 25,000 ETH contribution. This adds to Aave founder Stani Kulechov’s personal pledge of 5,000 ETH. Kelp DAO contributed 2,000 ETH, while Circle is buying AAVE tokens to support the protocol’s stability.

There remains a dispute over responsibility for the attack. LayerZero states it “recommended multi-DVN redundancy” to protect against single points of failure. Kelp, however, says it “used the default configuration” provided, which relied on a 1-of-1 DVN setup with only LayerZero Labs as the verifier.

Meanwhile, the total value locked across DeFi has dropped to $80 billion, down from roughly $95 billion just before the hack.

Aave has released a detailed technical recovery plan, and the broader effort to restore rsETH backing continues to move forward.

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