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According to official news, after discussions with multiple stakeholders, Aave service providers, ether.fi, KelpDAO, and other projects have submitted a governance proposal to the Arbitrum DAO, requesting the release of ETH that was frozen by the Arbitrum security committee after the rsETH incident on April 18.The announcement stated that if these ETH are released, the funds will be directed to DeFi United. Aave firmly believes that this contribution will significantly advance the path to a solution.

Aave posted on platform X stating that the Aave service provider has released a governance proposal for Aave DAO, suggesting to allocate 25,000 ETH to participate in the ongoing DeFi United initiative. This ETH funding will be used to support the restoration of asset backing for rsETH, helping it to quickly regain its peg and promote the normalization of market conditions.This proposal aims to accelerate the risk management process for rsETH through financial support at the Aave DAO level, stabilizing the related DeFi market ecosystem.

Aave, in collaboration with multiple institutions, has launched the "DeFi United" rescue plan to address the approximately $292 million loss caused by the KelpDAO vulnerability attack and to prevent the spread of bad debts.The attack originated from a vulnerability in the LayerZero integration, where hackers forged uncollateralized rsETH and borrowed approximately $190 million in assets on Aave, leading to collateral distortion and triggering a bank run, causing the platform's TVL to evaporate by about $10 billion at one point.Currently, Lido Finance, EtherFi, and founder Stani Kulechov have proposed funding plans; Arbitrum has frozen some funds, but the remaining assets have been transferred through THORChain, making recovery difficult. The current focus is on joint funding to "patch the holes" and stabilize the DeFi lending system.

ILITY successfully raised $2 million at a valuation of $21 million, co-led by Animoca Brands and Duck DAO, marking an important milestone in its mission to redefine cross-chain identity and data sovereignty in the Web3 space. The project is building a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to achieve secure cross-chain data verification while ensuring that sensitive information is not leaked.The newly acquired funds will accelerate protocol development, expand ecosystem partnerships, and strengthen ILITY's position as a core infrastructure layer for a decentralized future.

AI deep technology and Web3 infrastructure company Cluster Protocol announced the completion of a $5 million financing round, led by DAO5, with participation from Paper Ventures, JPEG Trading, Mapleblock Capital, among others, bringing the company's total funding to $7.75 million.The new funds will be used to accelerate the development of its EVM ecosystem-oriented browser-native IDE product CodeXero, expand the product and engineering teams, and enhance AI systems, developer workflows, deployment infrastructure, and ecosystem growth. Cluster Protocol stated that CodeXero has connected over 300,000 wallets, processed more than 3 billion AI tokens, and supported the deployment of over 25,000 dApps.

According to official news, KelpDAO stated that over the past few days, the team has been continuously advancing the handling of related events with the support of partners, allies, and the community. Discussions are progressing in a positive direction, and efforts are being accelerated to reach a suitable solution. The project party emphasized that it always adheres to the core principle of "user first," and subsequent measures will be gradually implemented with the aim of safeguarding the overall interests of users.In the past four days, the Kelp team has been working around the clock in collaboration with multiple parties, maintaining close communication with all relevant parties, and making substantial progress on several potential solutions. This includes measures taken by the Arbitrum Security Council to freeze the stolen funds, as well as SEAL 911 participating in the preliminary investigation to provide objective and clear analytical support for the incident.Kelp stated that the current focus of work remains on protecting user asset security and strengthening the protocol itself. This incident is not only of critical significance to the project but also has enlightening value for the entire industry. The team will continue to disclose subsequent progress through official channels and thanks the ecological partners and community for their ongoing support.Previous reports indicated that the KelpDAO hacker has essentially laundered $175 million in ETH into BTC.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, within a day and a half, the KelpDAO hacker has exchanged nearly all of the 75,700 ETH (175 million USD) for BTC.The hacker mainly used the THORChain protocol for cross-chain exchanges, contributing 800 million USD in trading volume and 910,000 USD in platform fee revenue to THORChain.

According to monitoring by Shield, the KelpDAO attackers have begun to transfer the stolen assets: they transferred some of the stolen ETH from the Ethereum mainnet across to Arbitrum via the Across Protocol, then exchanged it for USDT, and routed it to the TRON DAO ecosystem through LayerZero.This path shows that the attackers are diversifying and laundering funds through multi-chain bridges and stablecoin conversion methods, and the subsequent flow of funds still needs to be continuously tracked.

According to a Bloomberg report citing Jefferies, a hacker attack on small crypto projects over the weekend, involving nearly $300 million, and the subsequent $10 billion fund run at the largest decentralized lending platform (the KelpDAO and Aave incident), may weaken Wall Street's interest in blockchain technology.Andrew Moss, an analyst at Jefferies' digital asset research team, pointed out that over the past year, banks, asset management companies, and payment institutions have been developing blockchain products similar to the technology system exploited by North Korean hackers. The report suggests that while such incidents are unlikely to directly impact traditional financial markets, it warns that traditional financial institutions may pause related processes and reassess risks before further advancing blockchain business.

Jefferies, a Wall Street investment bank, pointed out that the approximately $293 million attack incident on Kelp DAO exposed critical infrastructure risks, which may prompt traditional financial institutions to reassess the pace of blockchain and tokenization advancement.Jefferies believes that the attackers triggered market sell-offs and liquidity strains by minting uncollateralized tokens and engaging in cross-platform lending. This incident is thought to be related to the Lazarus Group and also highlights the single point of failure issues in the verification mechanisms of cross-chain bridges. As institutions accelerate the tokenization of assets (such as funds, bonds, and deposits), the associated risks may cause some banks and asset management institutions to delay deployment and prioritize examining system security. Especially in scenarios that rely on cross-chain infrastructure, security vulnerabilities could lead to market fragmentation, undermining the practical utility of tokenized assets.Despite short-term confidence being shaken, Jefferies still emphasizes that the long-term trend remains unchanged. Under the backdrop of regulatory advancements and continuous improvements in infrastructure, applications such as stablecoins still have growth potential. However, the industry as a whole is still in the early stages of development and requires time to enhance system robustness.

According to on-chain analyst Specter (@SpecterAnalyst), the North Korean hacker group TraderTraitor began laundering stolen funds from KelpDAO early this morning Beijing time, just three hours after the Arbitrum Council froze 30.7 ETH (approximately $71 million).The attackers split the remaining funds into three wallets, holding approximately 25,000 ETH (about $57.6 million), 25,700 ETH (about $59.2 million), and 25,000 ETH (about $57.9 million), with the third wallet immediately starting the laundering process, currently holding about 3,800 ETH (approximately $8 million). The funds are primarily being bridged to the Bitcoin network via THORChain, with about 99% of the funds flowing through this protocol, causing THORChain's trading volume to surge to $211 million that day, more than ten times its 30-day average, generating approximately $189,000 in fees.During this laundering process, the funds were also mixed with illicit proceeds from the BTC Turk (2025) and Bybit (2025) hacking incidents, with related funds currently tracked on the Bitcoin network totaling approximately 442 BTC (about $33 million), and the entire laundering process has utilized over 400 addresses.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), the Kelp DAO attacker transferred 50,700 ETH to 2 new addresses, worth $118 million.

The HTX Genesis Hackathon, hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI, and co-initiated by TinTinLand and OpenCity, has opened in Hong Kong. The opening event was lively, with increasing frequency of exchanges and interaction density, creating a high-intensity dialogue atmosphere among developers, investors, and ecosystem participants.HTX DAO ambassador Molly shared on the theme "HTX DAO Ecosystem Development Plan: Launch of a Multi-Million Dollar Ecological Fund and Value Closed-Loop Strategy." She pointed out that the core vision of the HTX Genesis Hackathon is to build a free financial port based on the exchange's hinterland. To achieve this goal, five major ecological matrices covering the entire industry chain have been constructed, including: Huobi HTX as the core business engine and liquidity center; HTX DAO serving as the governance hub and centralized decision-making brain of the ecosystem; public chains and innovation layers providing payment network support through TRON, and building a solid DeFi infrastructure with JustLend, SunX, etc.; HTX Ventures focusing on industry frontiers, providing investment, incubation, and acceleration services for outstanding projects; and B.AI aiming at future trends, dedicated to creating financial infrastructure for the AI Agent era.Molly further emphasized that regarding future development, Huobi HTX has clearly proposed four core strategic keywords: "stability, transparency, institutionalization, AI empowerment," aiming to enhance the platform's long-term competitiveness in a complex market environment and provide ecosystem participants with more certain growth expectations.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT updated that the funds related to the KelpDAO attack have begun to be transferred, with approximately $1.5 million being cross-chain transferred from the Ethereum mainnet to the Bitcoin network via Thorchain, and another approximately $78,000 being transferred through Umbra.The initial source of funds for the related attack addresses came from Tornado Cash, and the money laundering and cross-chain transfers are still ongoing.