KelpDAO $293M rsETH Exploit — Spoofed LayerZero Message and One‑of‑One DVN Used to Drain Funds; Arbitrum Freezes 30,766 ETH; Jefferies Warns Banks May Reassess Tokenization

first published 2026-04-21T05:55:47Z

Arbitrum’s Security Council froze 30,766 ETH (about $71 million) linked to a $292 million rsETH exploit against Kelp DAO, transferring the funds into an intermediary wallet that can only be accessed via further Arbitrum governance action. The emergency freeze — taken with input from law enforcement and executed without affecting other Arbitrum users — recovers roughly a quarter of the stolen assets and prevents the original exploiter from accessing them. The action intensifies a dispute between Kelp and bridge provider LayerZero; LayerZero has preliminarily attributed the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

AI Analysis

Security Council froze 30,766 ETH (~$71M) and moved it to a governance‑accessible intermediary wallet, recovering ~25% of stolen funds and preventing the exploiter from accessing those assets; action was coordinated with law enforcement. However, the incident highlights a broader dispute between Kelp and LayerZero and attribution to the Lazarus Group, adding uncertainty.

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