Kelp DAO Disputes LayerZero's Claims Regarding $290 Million Disaster, Citing 'Default' Settings as the Cause

A recent crypto controversy has drawn comparisons to a popular Spiderman meme, where three identical superheroes point fingers at each other. The incident in question involves a $290 million exploit that occurred on Sunday, with Kelp DAO set to challenge LayerZero's post-mortem analysis. According to a source familiar with the matter, Kelp DAO plans to dispute LayerZero's claim that it ignored warnings to move away from a single-verifier setup. The liquid restaking protocol takes user-deposited ether, routes it through a yield-generating system called EigenLayer, and issues a receipt token called rsETH. LayerZero, a cross-chain messaging infrastructure, moves rsETH between blockchains using entities called decentralized verifier networks (DVNs) to verify the validity of cross-chain transfers. On Saturday, attackers drained 116,500 rsETH, worth approximately $290 million, from Kelp's LayerZero-powered bridge by compromising the servers that LayerZero's verifier relied on. Kelp DAO claims that the compromised DVN was part of LayerZero's own infrastructure, not a third-party verifier, and that the setup in question was the default configuration provided by LayerZero. The source contested LayerZero's framing of the '1/1 configuration' as a fringe choice made against guidance, stating that LayerZero's own quickstart guide and default GitHub configuration point to a 1/1 DVN setup. Approximately 40% of protocols on LayerZero are currently using the same configuration. Security researchers have also questioned LayerZero's isolated framing, which pinned the blame on Kelp DAO. Yearn Finance core team developer Artem K 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 DAO under the bus for trusting a setup that LayerZero itself supported. Kelp DAO has confirmed that the 1-of-1 DVN setup at the center of the incident reflects LayerZero's documented default configuration and has maintained close communication with the LayerZero team. The team behind LayerZero is working to 'harden security across every possible vector for applications' and will publish more updates soon.