Massive Crypto Heist: $292 Million Stolen from Kelp DAO, Leaving 20 Blockchains Exposed

In a shocking turn of events, a cross-chain bridge holding nearly 18% of the circulating supply of restaked ether (rsETH) has been drained, triggering a wave of panic throughout the DeFi ecosystem. The attack, which occurred on Saturday at 17:35 UTC, saw an attacker exploit a vulnerability in LayerZero's cross-chain messaging layer to siphon off 116,500 rsETH, worth around $292 million, from Kelp DAO's bridge. This bridge served as the reserve backing wrapped versions of rsETH deployed across over 20 blockchains, including Base, Arbitrum, and Scroll. The fallout from this exploit is far-reaching, with Aave, SparkLend, and Fluid freezing their rsETH markets and Lido Finance pausing further deposits into its earnETH product. The incident has also led to a significant decline in the value of AAVE, with the token falling by approximately 10% as the market reacts to the potential bad debt. As the situation continues to unfold, holders of rsETH on non-Ethereum deployments are left wondering if their tokens are backed by any underlying assets, creating a feedback loop that could lead to panic redemptions and further pressure on the unaffected Ethereum supply. The attack is the latest in a series of high-profile exploits to hit the DeFi space, with Solana-based perpetuals protocol Drift being drained of around $285 million just last month. With the Kelp DAO incident now the largest DeFi exploit of 2026, the community is on high alert, awaiting further developments and potential recoveries of the stolen funds.