A coordinated relief effort to raise funds following Kelp DAO's $290 million exploit this month crossed a critical threshold on Monday, receiving enough contributions to potentially cover decentralized finance's biggest hack in recent memory.
The organization dubbed DeFi United, which has been promoted by Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov, has raised 132,650 Ethereum (ETH), according to its website. With Ethereum recently changing hands around $2,300, the sum was valued at approximately $303 million as of Monday.
DeFi United plans to use the funds to restore rsETH, a token that Kelp DAO's attackers stole and used to borrow massive amounts from Aave on April 18. Since the unbacked funds were plundered, Aave's liquidity has been strained, shaking confidence in DeFi broadly.
Over the past day, contributions have been rolling in from across the crypto industry. Ethereum-focused development firm Consensys announced on Monday via an X post that it had contributed 30,000 ETH. The Avalanche Foundation also confirmed via X that it was backing the effort.
Although DeFi United has received enough contributions to negate the value of rsETH that attackers linked to North Korea had plundered, the total amount raised remains contingent on pending governance votes among other DeFi projects, including Mantle, Ether.Fi, and Lido.
DeFi United's website makes clear that the relief effort is not guaranteed to be successful, underscoring how its plan relies on several moving parts — particularly the ability of tokenholders governing various DeFi projects to rally around a common cause.
For example, the security council overseeing the layer-2 Ethereum scaling network Arbitrum essentially froze 30,765 Ethereum that attackers had left exposed. A proposal to contribute those funds to DeFi United estimates the process could take approximately 49 days.
Meanwhile, others are attempting to ease the liquidity crunch on Aave through alternative means. Tron founder Justin Sun said in an X post on Monday that Tron DAO and crypto exchange HTX have supplied $20 million worth of Tether's USDT stablecoin on Aave's platform.
When Kelp DAO attackers borrowed funds from Aave, they essentially exchanged rsETH for Ethereum, which prevented depositors from withdrawing funds. Many of those affected turned to stablecoins, borrowing the tokens as a way to extract money from the lending platform.
On Monday, the so-called utilization rate for markets related to USDT and Circle's USDC stablecoin hovered around 92%, according to Aavescan. After being pinned near 100% for several days last week, the metric indicated that the liquidity crunch had slightly abated.
Why it matters
The relief effort's success depends not just on dollar amounts raised but on governance votes across multiple independent DeFi protocols — meaning tokenholder participation in projects like Mantle, Ether.Fi, and Lido is a direct variable in whether losses are actually covered.
The Arbitrum security council's decision to freeze attacker-exposed funds introduces a roughly 49-day procedural delay, illustrating how on-chain governance timelines can slow crisis response even when funds are technically accessible.
Stablecoin utilization rates on Aave hovering near 100% for several days signals a systemic liquidity stress test for the broader lending market, not just the directly affected pools — affected depositors shifted to stablecoin borrowing as an indirect exit route.
