The coordinated relief effort DeFi United has crossed a critical threshold, raising over $300 million worth of Ethereum to potentially cover the $290 million rsETH exploit that targeted Kelp DAO. The funds, contributed by entities including Consensys and the Avalanche Foundation, are intended to restore the stolen token and alleviate strain on the Aave lending protocol. The full recovery depends on several pending governance votes across major decentralized finance projects.
The organization dubbed DeFi United has raised enough contributions to potentially cover decentralized finance’s biggest recent hack. As of Monday, it had received 132,650 Ethereum, valued around $303 million, according to its website.
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. This exploit has strained Aave’s liquidity and shaken confidence in DeFi broadly.
Over the past day, contributions have been rolling in from across the crypto industry. Ethereum-focused development firm Consensys stated in a post that it had contributed 30,000 ETH, while the Avalanche Foundation also said in a post that it was backing the effort.
Although DeFi United has received enough contributions to negate the value of the plundered rsETH, the total amount raised is contingent on pending governance votes. These votes involve other DeFi projects like Mantle, Ether.Fi, and Lido.
The relief effort’s website makes clear that its plan is not guaranteed to be successful. For example, a proposal on the Arbitrum network to contribute frozen funds estimates the process could take approximately 49 days.
Meanwhile, people are trying to ease the liquidity crunch on Aave in other ways. Tron founder Justin Sun said in a post that Tron DAO and crypto exchange HTX have supplied $20 million worth of Tether’s USDT stablecoin on Aave’s platform.
The exploit prevented many depositors from withdrawing funds from Aave, leading them to borrow stablecoins instead. Data from Aavescan showed the utilization rate for major stablecoin markets had slightly abated from 100% to around 92% by Monday.
