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Arbitrum Freezes $71 Million in ETH Linked to Kelp DAO Bridge Hack

The emergency action puts a quarter of the stolen ether under community control, foreshadowing difficult calls on restitution.

Overview

  • Arbitrum’s Security Council moved 30,766 ETH into a frozen wallet late Monday, leaving any further movement to a governance vote.
  • The funds trace to Kelp DAO’s April 18 LayerZero bridge exploit that used poisoned RPC nodes to pass a forged message, with preliminary attribution to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
  • rsETH, a token that represents staked ether, was deposited on Aave V3 to borrow large amounts of wrapped ETH, creating projected bad debt of $123.7 million to $230.1 million.
  • Kelp DAO and LayerZero are publicly disputing a single‑verifier bridge setup that left no independent check, with each side pointing to the other’s guidance and defaults.
  • Investigators say the attacker has begun laundering portions of the haul through mixers and cross‑chain routes, increasing pressure to trace and freeze more assets.