{"id":8876,"date":"2026-05-06T07:16:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=8876"},"modified":"2026-05-06T07:16:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:16:41","slug":"kelpdao-blames-layerzero-for-292m-exploit-plans-chainlink-powered-relaunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=8876","title":{"rendered":"KelpDAO Blames LayerZero for $292M Exploit, Plans Chainlink-Powered Relaunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_8fa699f29bdd4fca2abff58027237466\" class=\"blockquote-container\" style=\"border-color: #5100fc\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KelpDAO said LayerZero infrastructure was exploited in an April 18 bridge attack that drained about US$292 million.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chainalysis said attackers linked to Lazarus Group released 116,500 rsETH by feeding false data to a 1-of-1 verifier setup.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KelpDAO plans to move rsETH to Chainlink CCIP, where cross-chain transactions use 16 independent node operators.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>KelpDAO plans to relaunch rsETH cross-chain transfers using Chainlink after an April 18 exploit drained about US$292 million (AU$405.9 million) from its LayerZero bridge.<\/p>\n<p>But a dispute over responsibility for the attack is intensifying.<\/p>\n<p>KelpDAO said security reports showed compromised verifier infrastructure enabled the exploit. The company also alleged that LayerZero personnel approved the 1-of-1 verifier configuration tied to the breach without warning it posed a security risk.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After the recent LayerZero exploit, we are taking steps to ensure rsETH is fully secure, which is why we are migrating to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chainlink?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@chainlink<\/a> CCIP.<\/p>\n<p>From the April 18 incident, it is clear that LayerZero&#8217;s own infrastructure was exploited, resulting in $300M in losses across DeFi.\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/beIrfZZLlh<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kelp (@KelpDAO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KelpDAO\/status\/2051755467328913637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>LayerZero rejected that characterisation, saying the exploit was isolated to KelpDAO\u2019s rsETH application and resulted from a verifier setup that deviated from its recommended multi-verifier model.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:K Wave Media Abandons Bitcoin Strategy for AI Pivot, Shares Tumble\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-verifier-dispute-deepens\">Verifier Dispute Deepens<\/h2>\n<p>Chainalysis said attackers linked to North Korea\u2019s Lazarus Group stole about US$292 million (AU$405.9 million), or 116,500 rsETH, from KelpDAO\u2019s LayerZero bridge on April 18.<\/p>\n<p>The blockchain analysis firm said the incident was \u201cnot a smart contract vulnerability\u201d but an off-chain infrastructure attack involving compromised RPC nodes and denial-of-service pressure against external nodes.<\/p>\n<p>According to Chainalysis, the attack fed false data into the bridge\u2019s verifier system, allowing fraudulent cross-chain messages to be accepted as valid.<\/p>\n<p>KelpDAO later paused contracts and blocked a second attempted theft of 40,000 rsETH, worth about US$95 million (AU$132.1 million), Chainalysis said.<\/p>\n<p>The Arbitrum Security Council also froze 30,766 ETH linked to the attackers. About US$71 million (AU$98.7 million) in crypto tied to the exploit is now at the center of a New York federal court dispute.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-chainlink-migration\">The Chainlink Migration<\/h2>\n<p>KelpDAO said it will migrate rsETH from LayerZero\u2019s OFT standard to Chainlink\u2019s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard.<\/p>\n<p>Supporting coverage said Chainlink CCIP uses 16 independent node operators to validate cross-chain transactions, replacing the architecture implicated in the exploit.<\/p>\n<p>The attack also triggered broader market stress across decentralized finance protocols.<\/p>\n<p>Following the exploit, Aave V3 Ethereum Core available liquidity fell from US$9.77 billion (AU$13.58 billion) to US$5.75 billion (AU$7.99 billion) within 29 hours, according to Glassnode.<\/p>\n<p>Available WETH liquidity dropped from US$689 million (AU$957.7 million) to US$1.5 million (AU$2.1 million) in just two hours as utilisation reached 100%.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more: Uphold Pays US$5M Over Collapsed CredEarn Crypto Scheme<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Chainlink,KelpDAO,LayerZero#KelpDAO #Blames #LayerZero #292M #Exploit #Plans #ChainlinkPowered #Relaunch1778051801<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KelpDAO said LayerZero infrastructure was exploited in an April 18 bridge attack that drained about US$292 million. Chainalysis said attackers linked to Lazarus Group released 116,500 rsETH by feeding false data to a 1-of-1 verifier setup. KelpDAO plans to move rsETH to Chainlink CCIP, where cross-chain transactions use 16 independent node operators. KelpDAO plans to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4126,3090,4377,664,4124,2382,586,3215],"class_list":{"0":"post-8876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin","8":"tag-292m","9":"tag-blames","10":"tag-chainlinkpowered","11":"tag-exploit","12":"tag-kelpdao","13":"tag-layerzero","14":"tag-plans","15":"tag-relaunch"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>KelpDAO Blames LayerZero for $292M Exploit, Plans Chainlink-Powered Relaunch - Crypto News: Latest Cryptocurrency News and Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=8876\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KelpDAO Blames LayerZero for $292M Exploit, Plans Chainlink-Powered Relaunch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"KelpDAO said LayerZero infrastructure was exploited in an April 18 bridge attack that drained about US$292 million. 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