Kelp DAO Disputes LayerZero's Claims Regarding $290 Million Exploit

A recent $290 million disaster has sparked a heated debate between Kelp DAO and LayerZero, with each party assigning blame to the other. According to a source familiar with the matter, Kelp DAO plans to challenge LayerZero's post-mortem analysis of the incident, which suggests that Kelp ignored repeated warnings about its single-verifier setup. The liquid restaking protocol claims that the compromised verifier was actually part of LayerZero's own infrastructure, and that the setup was based on LayerZero's default configuration. This configuration, which requires only one validator to sign off on a cross-chain message, is used by approximately 40% of protocols on LayerZero. Security researchers have also questioned LayerZero's framing of the incident, with some accusing the company of deflecting responsibility for its own compromised infrastructure. The incident has prompted LayerZero to announce that it will no longer support single-verifier setups, forcing a protocol-wide migration. As the situation continues to unfold, both parties are working to establish a shared understanding of what happened and to implement fixes to prevent similar incidents in the future.