Ethereum backers will give 30,000 ETH to recover rETH after exploitation
Consensus and Ethereum founder Joe Lubin have joined DeFi United, a recovery effort of up to 30,000 ETH to restore rETH support after a $290 million bridge exploit caused widespread disruption to DeFi.
Led by Aave DAO participants, this initiative aims to support affected users and stabilize the rETH markets, pending regulatory approvals in the relevant protocols.
The funding is intended to provide immediate liquidity while regulatory processes continue, limiting disruptions in DeFi protocols. Sharplink has joined the publicly traded Ethereum treasury company in an advisory role to structure its recovery plan.
Source: Aave on X
DeFi United April 23 in service providers for Aave DAO, with participants Lido, EtherFi, Athena, Mantle and Frax etc.
The recovery effort follows an April 18 exploit that leaked 116,500 rETH, worth an estimated $290 million, from a LayerZero-based bridge operated by Kelp Dao.
The incident caused disruption in the DeFi ecosystem, with dozens of protocols temporarily halting some activity. On Aave, the attacker used rETH as collateral to borrow liquidity, contributing up to $200 million in bad debt and forcing the protocol to halt rETH markets.
According to LayerZero Labs, the exploit is linked to a configuration issue in Kelp's configuration that relies on a single authentication method on cross-chain messages.
Separately, circle he said. It announced on Monday that its corporate arm is buying AAVE tokens to support the protocol and the wider DeFi ecosystem.
Source: Circle on X
Related: Aave Asks Arbitrum to Send 30K ETH from Kelp Mining to ‘DeFi United'
DeFi is on the rise in April
The incident comes amid recent attacks targeting DeFi protocols. According to Defillama, nearly $729 million was lost to crypto hacks in the past 90 days, up from $623 million in April alone.
The month started approx 280 million dollars exploitation On April 1, Drift Protocol was subjected to a social engineering attack by an attacker suspected of having links to North Korea.
DeFi Hackers, February-April 2026. Source: Defillama
Two weeks later, Rhea Finance reported that an attacker used a vulnerability in its margin trading feature to control liquidity pools, causing losses of approximately $7.6 million, according to CertiK. The protocol has since paused operations and is undergoing a gradual recovery, with most funds recovered and some USDT still awaiting release by Tether.
The string of attacks included smaller exploits earlier in the month, such as a $410,000 loss on Dango on April 13, a $392,000 term-related loss on Silo Finance on April 3, and a $423,000 address control exploit on April 9.
Although none of the recent attacks have been linked to artificial intelligence, researchers say advances in technology are making it easier to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in DeFi systems.
In the year By the end of 2025, Anthropic researchers have confirmed that AI models will be able to detect more than half of the known smart contract exploits, showing how the technology will accelerate future attacks.
According to data from Polymarket, traders are expecting another big crypto hack this year, and the probability is 84% by the end of 2026.
Another crypto hack opportunity worth over $100 million. Source: Polymarket
Magazine: AI-Driven Hacks Could Kill DeFi – Unless Projects Act Now
