Kelp DAO Disputes LayerZero's Claims Over $290 Million Exploit, Alleging Default Settings Were to Blame

A recent crypto exploit has sparked a heated debate, with Kelp DAO set to challenge LayerZero's account of the $290 million disaster. According to a source familiar with the matter, Kelp plans to argue that the compromised verifier was actually part of LayerZero's infrastructure, and that the setup was based on LayerZero's default configuration. The incident occurred when attackers drained 116,500 rsETH, worth about $290 million, from Kelp's LayerZero-powered bridge by poisoning the servers that LayerZero's verifier relied on. Kelp claims that the attack was a sophisticated state-sponsored attack that compromised two of LayerZero's own servers, which were then used to flood the backup servers with junk traffic. The source contests LayerZero's claim that Kelp chose a 1-of-1 DVN setup despite recommendations to configure multi-DVN redundancy, arguing that LayerZero's own quickstart guide and default GitHub configuration point to a 1/1 DVN setup. In fact, 40% of protocols on LayerZero are currently using the same configuration. Security researchers have also questioned LayerZero's account, with one expert noting that the reference setup ships with single-source verification defaults across every major chain. The incident has sparked a wider debate about the security of cross-chain messaging infrastructure, with some accusing LayerZero of deflecting responsibility for its own compromised infrastructure.