In one of the most coordinated industry responses DeFi has seen, major players are lining up hundreds of millions of dollars to help Aave users recover from losses tied to the Kelp DAO exploit. The initiative — informally called “DeFi United” — has gathered roughly $303 million in pledged commitments as of Monday, according to its website, though much of the capital still awaits governance approvals. The call to action followed an April 18 bridge attack that hit rsETH markets and propagated risk across lending positions on Aave, prompting wide concern about market stability and user losses. Aave is at the center of the recovery plan. A governance proposal from the protocol asks the Aave DAO to allocate up to 250,000 ETH to remediation efforts, and founder Stani Kulechov has pledged 5,000 ETH personally. Several people and teams closely tied to Aave have also stepped up: Emilio Frangella (500 ETH), BGD Labs’ Ernesto Boado (100 ETH), BGD Labs (250 ETH), and Marcelo Ruiz de Orlano of KPK (100 ETH). The effort quickly broadened beyond Aave’s immediate circle. Kulechov reached out to key ecosystem participants after the exploit, prompting Consensys and founder Joseph Lubin to commit up to 30,000 ETH to support recovery and protect users, with Sharplink advising in those discussions. “The Ethereum ecosystem has always been at its best when it moves together,” Lubin said, calling DeFi United a broad, coordinated response to defend users and infrastructure. Other notable proposals and commitments include: - Lido: proposal to allocate up to 2,500 stETH. - EtherFi: discussions around a 5,000 ETH support plan. - Mantle: proposed a 30,000 ETH credit facility. - Compound: proposal to contribute up to 3,000 ETH. - Babylon Foundation: plans to deposit $3 million in USDT into Aave. - Renzo: supplied more than $10 million from its treasury. - Circle Ventures: buying AAVE tokens to support the effort. - Deposits also reported from Avalanche Foundation, Solana Foundation, and Justin Sun. Some participants have not disclosed specific amounts but are involved in the initiative, including Ethena, LayerZero, Frax Finance, Ink Foundation, and Tyro. Contributions are arriving in different forms — grants, direct deposits, and credit lines — reflecting varied approaches to balancing user protection with risk management. Separately, Aave Labs has asked Arbitrum governance to release about 30,765.67 ETH currently immobilized by Arbitrum’s Security Council so those funds can be used in the remediation process and help “make affected rsETH holders whole.” While a significant portion of the pledged capital still depends on approvals and active proposals, the breadth of participation highlights how far-reaching the exploit’s effects were — and how much of the DeFi ecosystem is willing to coordinate to restore market function and confidence. Ian Allison contributed reporting. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news