Key Takeaways:
In line with Llamarisk, an attacker exploited Kelp’s Layerzero V2 bridge on April 18, 2026, minting 116,500 rsETH with none corresponding burn. Llamarisk estimates unhealthy debt between $123.7M and $230.1M throughout 7 affected markets, relying on how Kelp socializes losses. The Aave DAO treasury holds $181M as of April 20, 2026, and repair suppliers are already securing indicative restoration commitments from ecosystem members.
Llamarisk Particulars rsETH Exploit Eventualities After Kelp OFT Adapter Drained
The evaluation revealed by danger administration firm Llamarisk and Aave service supplier co-authors defined that the assault occurred at 17:35 UTC in Ethereum block 24,908,285. The Unichain-to-Ethereum route was configured as a 1-of-1 DVN path, which means a single verifier might attest an inbound packet with none corresponding outbound motion, based on the report.
Llamarisk authors mentioned the attacker solid a packet that was verified, dedicated, and delivered on Ethereum, releasing 116,500 rsETH from the adapter, the Aave report notes. The adapter steadiness fell from 116,723 rsETH to 223 rsETH in a single block. The attacker fanned the stolen rsETH from one consumption pockets throughout seven department addresses. Of the 116,500 rsETH acquired, 89,567 had been deposited into Aave V3 markets on Ethereum and Arbitrum as collateral.
These positions had been used to borrow roughly 82,650 WETH and 821 wstETH, with well being components settling between 1.01 and 1.03. All seven attacker addresses stay energetic on Aave on the time of publication.
Aave service suppliers co-authored Llamarisk’s full incident report and confirmed that Aave’s personal good contracts weren’t compromised. All protocol logic, together with provide, compensation, and liquidation mechanics, continued to perform as designed all through the occasion.
The Protocol Guardian started freezing all rsETH and wrsETH reserves throughout all Aave V3 deployments at roughly 19:00 UTC on April 18. The motion set LTV to zero and disabled new provide and borrowing whereas leaving current positions eligible for compensation and liquidation. Eleven markets throughout Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ink, Linea, Mantle, MegaETH, Plasma, and Zksync had been affected, based on the Aave discussion board evaluation.
The report says the Danger Steward adjusted WETH rate of interest fashions on Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea at roughly 14:30 UTC on April 19, lowering Slope 2 to 1.50 p.c and chopping the borrow fee at 100% utilization from between 8.5 and 10.5 p.c down to three.0 p.c APR. A corresponding adjustment was utilized to Core at roughly 05:00 UTC on April 20, with Slope 1 set to 2 p.c, Slope 2 to three p.c, and optimum utilization set to 94 p.c.
The Protocol Guardian additionally froze WETH on Core, Prime, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea at roughly 02:00 UTC on April 20 to forestall new borrowing and comprise potential stress from spreading to stablecoin reserves.
The two Eventualities
The 2 situations modeled by Llamarisk’s evaluation replicate how Kelp’s loss allocation determination will decide the protocol’s last publicity. State of affairs 1 assumes uniform socialization of the 112,204 unbacked rsETH throughout all the rsETH provide, producing a 15.12 p.c depeg and an estimated $123.7 million in unhealthy debt, with Ethereum Core absorbing $91.8 million in absolute phrases and Mantle dealing with a 9.54 p.c WETH reserve shortfall.
State of affairs 2 treats the loss as remoted to L2 rsETH solely, making use of a 73.54 p.c haircut to collateral on distant chains whereas leaving Ethereum mainnet rsETH totally intact, producing an estimated $230.1 million in unhealthy debt focused on Mantle at a 71.45 p.c WETH shortfall and Arbitrum at 26.67 p.c.
The present adapter steadiness stands at 40,373 rsETH, the one confirmed backing for all remote-chain rsETH throughout each L2 path, towards complete distant claims of 152,577 rsETH. Kelp has not publicly confirmed how the recovered funds will probably be allotted.
As of April 20, 2026, the report mentioned that the Aave DAO treasury holds $181 million in belongings, together with $62 million in Ethereum-correlated holdings, $54 million in AAVE, and $52 million in stablecoins. The DAO generated $145 million in income throughout 2025 and $38 million year-to-date in 2026. Llamarisk confirmed that a number of indicative commitments from ecosystem members are already in place to handle potential bad-debt situations.
WETH reserves on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Linea, and Mantle are at 100% utilization, with idle balances under $20 on each chain. At full utilization, liquidators obtain aWETH quite than underlying WETH, which slows liquidation throughput.
Llamarisk’s report flagged Base and Arbitrum because the least buffered markets, with first liquidations triggered at WETH worth drops of 0.77 p.c and 1.77 p.c, respectively, resulting from positions working at well being components round 1.03.
Llamarisk really helpful a direct pause of the WETH Umbrella staking module below State of affairs 1. As of the report’s publication, 18,922 of 23,507 staked aWETH had entered the unstaking cooldown.
A pause would block deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and slashing whereas retaining rewards distribution energetic. The remaining 4 rsETH-listed markets, Ethereum Lido, MegaETH, Plasma, and Zksync, carry trivial balances and no unhealthy debt. Twelve extra Aave V3 markets don’t record rsETH and are unaffected.
