April 20, 2026, will go down in cybersecurity history as the day of one of the boldest hacks in the decentralized finance space. Hackers managed to snag over $300 million, throwing the stability of the entire crypto market into jeopardy.

The attackers uncovered a critical vulnerability in the cross-chain infrastructure used by the Kelp DAO protocol. Due to a bug in the bridge code based on LayerZero technology, the hackers were able to compromise the transaction verification system.

This allowed them to issue fake confirmations and withdraw approximately 116,500 rsETH (liquid re-staking tokens). At the current rate, the market value of the lost assets is estimated at $293.7 million.

Panic in the market

Since rsETH tokens were widely used as collateral in other DeFi services, the impact was felt across the entire sector:

  • Liquidity crisis: Investors have started to withdraw funds massively from the largest platforms. Over $9 billion was withdrawn from the Aave protocol in just a few hours.

  • Fall of related projects: At least 9 other DeFi protocols integrated with Kelp DAO have reported abnormal losses or technical failures.

  • Operation freeze: The Kelp DAO team was forced to urgently suspend the smart contracts to stop further fund leaks.

Who's behind this?

Leading blockchain security firms like Chainalysis and PeckShield have already identified a distinct "signature" in the transactions. Most evidence points to the North Korean group Lazarus Group, notorious for its large-scale attacks on crypto exchanges and bridges.

Currently, operations with rsETH are frozen. Experts advise:

  1. Don't panic and avoid trying to swap assets on unverified DEX platforms due to massive price slippage.

  2. Revoke permissions for smart contracts that may be compromised.

  3. Keep an eye on the official Kelp DAO channels regarding the compensation plan for losses.

This incident raises again the pressing issue of security for cross-chain bridges, which remain the most vulnerable link in the modern crypto economy.

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