Kelp DAO says rsETH restored 5 weeks after $293M protocol hack
Kelp DAO says rsETH is fully restored after April’s $293 million exploit, and token operations are now running normally.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
Kelp DAO says the recovery of its rsETH token is complete five weeks after a hack tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The fix restored normal mints, redemptions, rewards, and cross-chain transfers, while the incident had already strained DeFi lending markets, especially Aave.
Kelp DAO had a big problem: someone broke into its system and caused one of its digital tokens to lose support. Think of it like a toy store finding out some of its toy boxes are missing pieces.
Now the company says it has replaced the missing pieces and put the system back together. That means people can again move the token around, trade it back, and earn rewards with it.
The trouble did not stay in one place. Another big lending app got hurt too, like when one broken bridge makes traffic jam up all over town.
Analysis
Recovery completed
Kelp DAO says the last tranche of 20,373.7 rsETH was sent to the LayerZero smart contract that handles locking, minting, burning, and releasing the token during cross-chain transfers. The company said this “closes the operational part” of its recovery plan.
Several crypto protocols helped replenish rsETH backing through the DeFi United initiative, according to the article. Kelp also said rsETH mints, redemptions, and rewards have been running smoothly since withdrawals reopened earlier this month.
What happened in April
The protocol was hit on April 18 in an exploit the article attributes to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The attack caused wider stress in crypto lending because the attacker used a large amount of stolen rsETH as collateral on Aave to borrow wrapped Ether.
Cointelegraph says that left Aave with $190 million in bad debt and sparked withdrawals. The article also says Kelp DAO’s exploit was one of 25 crypto hacks in April, which together accounted for $630 million in losses, the worst month since February 2025.
Market impact
The fallout was not limited to Kelp. The article says Aave’s total value locked fell from $26.4 billion to below $14 billion, and it lost its position as the largest DeFi protocol by TVL. DefiLlama data cited in the story shows outflows have eased, but Aave has not shown a clear recovery yet.
Key points
- Kelp DAO says the final rsETH transfer completed the recovery plan after the April exploit.
- The protocol says mints, redemptions, rewards, and withdrawals are operating normally again.
- The article links the exploit to North Korea’s Lazarus Group and dates it to April 18.
- Aave was hit hard because stolen rsETH was used as collateral, creating $190 million in bad debt.
- The hack contributed to a broader April crypto-loss total of $630 million.
