Kelp DAO suffers rsETH bridge hack! $292 million stolen, triggering chain reaction of freezes on Aave and Compound

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The rsETH cross-chain bridge of the DeFi restaking protocol Kelp DAO has been hit by a major hack, resulting in a loss of approximately $292 million and becoming the largest DeFi exploit of 2026 to date. The attacker leveraged the LayerZero cross-chain infrastructure to forge verification messages, stealing over 18% of the circulating supply of rsETH and creating over $280 million in bad debt across multiple lending protocols, triggering a chain-wide freeze. (Previous coverage: Capital backing and airdrop frenzy: How the restaking LRT sector became a "new gold rush") (Background: EigenLayer discloses 5 major rules for staking rewards; Justin Sun becomes the biggest winner with 5.37 million $EIGEN) The DeFi sector suffered another brutal night today (19th). The Kelp DAO rsETH cross-chain bridge was hacked, with 116,500 rsETH drained in a single transaction. Based on the market price at the time of the attack, this is equivalent to approximately $292 million, accounting for 18% of the total circulating supply of 630,000 rsETH. This surpasses the Drift Protocol incident on April 1st of this year ($285 million), making it the largest DeFi loss event of 2026. The core of this attack was a forgery exploit targeting the LayerZero cross-chain messaging infrastructure. LayerZero is a communication protocol that allows different blockchains to "talk" to each other: simply put, it allows Chain A to tell Chain B, "Someone has deposited money here, you can allow them to withdraw it there." The attacker forged a fake verification message, tricking Kelp's bridge contract into believing there was a legitimate transfer request on another chain, thereby directly releasing 116,500 rsETH to an address controlled by the hacker. Kelp DAO announced an emergency suspension of rsETH deposit and withdrawal functions on mainnet and all Layer 2 networks earlier. Earlier today we identified suspicious cross-chain activity involving rsETH. We have paused rsETH contracts across mainnet and several L2s while we investigate. We are working with @LayerZero_Core, @unichain, our auditors and top security experts on RCA. We will keep you… — Kelp (@KelpDAO) April 18, 2026 According to analysis, the attacker did not immediately swap the stolen rsETH for exit liquidity. Instead, they deposited it into mainstream lending platforms such as Aave V3, Compound V3, and Euler, using rsETH as collateral to borrow approximately 74,000 ETH. This maneuver created over $236 million in debt positions across various protocols, which, combined with the initial theft, resulted in over $280 million in bad debt spreading throughout the DeFi ecosystem. The chain reaction triggered by this event spread rapidly across the entire DeFi ecosystem. Aave announced the freezing of its V3 and V4 rsETH markets, emphasizing that "Aave's contracts have not been exploited and this is an exploit related to rsETH." SparkLend and Fluid followed suit, freezing their respective rsETH-related markets. The rsETH markets on Aave V3 and Aave V4 have been frozen. Aave's contracts have not been exploited and this is an exploit related to rsETH. The freeze follows an exploit of the Kelp DAO rsETH bridge. Freezing the rsETH markets prevents new deposits and borrowing against rsETH… — Aave (@aave) April 18, 2026 Lido Finance also decided to suspend earnETH deposits due to its exposure to rsETH. Although Ethena does not have direct exposure to rsETH, it preemptively suspended its LayerZero bridging functionality on the Ethereum mainnet. rsETH is a representative asset in the restaking sector, and its security has been highly trusted. As a core player in cross-chain infrastructure, LayerZero's role as a springboard for this attack has put pressure on all protocols relying on cross-chain bridges to re-examine their security architectures. Kelp DAO has not yet released a detailed remediation plan, and the freeze status across various protocols remains in effect. On-chain investigations are ongoing, with ZachXBT stating that they are tracking the flow of funds and evaluating whether the incident is linked to any known hacker organizations.

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