Kelp DAO Disputes LayerZero's Claims Regarding the $290 Million Disaster

A recent $290 million exploit has sparked a heated debate between Kelp DAO and LayerZero, with Kelp set to dispute LayerZero's claims that it was to blame for the disaster. According to a source familiar with the matter, Kelp plans to argue that the compromised verifier was actually part of LayerZero's own infrastructure, and that the setup it was using was the default recommended by LayerZero. The exploit, which occurred on Saturday, saw attackers drain 116,500 rsETH, worth around $290 million, from Kelp's LayerZero-powered bridge by poisoning the servers that LayerZero's verifier relied on to check transactions. Kelp claims that the attack was a sophisticated state-sponsored attack that compromised two of LayerZero's own servers, and that the backup servers were then flooded with junk traffic to force LayerZero's verifier onto the compromised ones. The source also contested LayerZero's framing of the '1/1 configuration' as a fringe choice made against guidance, pointing out that LayerZero's own quickstart guide and default GitHub configuration recommend a 1/1 DVN setup, and that 40% of protocols on LayerZero are currently using the same configuration. Security researchers have also weighed in on the debate, with some accusing LayerZero of deflecting responsibility for its own compromised infrastructure. Yearn Finance core team developer Artem K, also known as @banteg, posted a technical review of LayerZero's public deployment code, noting that the reference setup ships with single-source verification defaults across every major chain. Chainlink community manager Zach Rynes alleged that LayerZero was 'deflecting responsibility' for its own compromised infrastructure and accused the company of throwing Kelp under the bus for trusting a setup LayerZero itself supported.