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. Kelp DAO is pushing back against LayerZero's claims that it was responsible for the massive exploit. According to a source familiar with the matter, Kelp DAO plans to argue that the compromised verifier was actually part of LayerZero's own infrastructure, and that the setup it used was based on LayerZero's default configuration. The exploit occurred when attackers poisoned the servers that LayerZero's verifier relied on to check transactions, resulting in the theft of 116,500 rsETH, worth approximately $290 million. Kelp DAO claims that all of the infrastructure involved was built and run by LayerZero, not by Kelp. The source also contested LayerZero's claim that Kelp DAO chose a 1-of-1 DVN setup despite recommendations to configure multi-DVN redundancy. Instead, Kelp DAO argues that LayerZero's own quickstart guide and default GitHub configuration point to a 1/1 DVN setup, and that 40% of protocols on LayerZero are currently using the same configuration. Security researchers have also questioned LayerZero's claims, with one researcher noting that LayerZero's 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 protocols and the need for greater transparency and accountability in the industry.