A recent $292 million hack on April 18 has shaken the DeFi sector, but it is showing signs of resilience, according to Standard Chartered. The attack on KelpDAO had a ripple effect on AAVE, the largest DeFi lender, leading to a sharp decline in liquidity and a significant drop in deposits and active loans. Despite this, the bank remains optimistic about the sector's growth prospects, predicting that tokenized real-world assets will reach a market cap of $2 trillion by the end of 2028. The hack has highlighted the importance of security in the DeFi space, with risks such as smart contract bugs, phishing, and cross-chain bridge flaws posing a significant threat to the ecosystem.
However, the swift response from AAVE and other DeFi firms has helped to stabilize the system, and the incident is accelerating structural upgrades to improve security and reduce reliance on cross-chain bridges.