A recent $292 million exploit on April 18 has not broken the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, according to Standard Chartered. The attack on KelpDAO, which spilled over into AAVE, the largest DeFi lender, led to a sharp liquidity crunch, with deposits and active loans declining by 38% and 31%, respectively.
Despite this, the bank maintains that tokenized real-world assets will reach a $2 trillion market cap by the end of 2028, driven by growth in DeFi lending and stablecoin liquidity. The hack, which was described as a bank-run dynamic, has accelerated structural upgrades, including AAVE's V4 upgrade and the forthcoming Ethereum Economic Zone, aimed at reducing reliance on cross-chain bridges, a common target in major crypto hacks.