TheBlock
Kelp DAO and Aave said they will resume rsETH operations in the coming days, following the first successful recovery steps after the April 18 exploit. The attack drained roughly $292 million from Kelp and is attributed by investigators to North Korea's Lazarus Group.
Why it matters
rsETH is one of the largest liquid restaking tokens in DeFi, and Aave is among the highest-profile lending venues that accepted it as collateral. The exploit was the first large-scale test of how the restaking stack and the lending markets that depend on it handle a single-asset compromise of this size. Resuming operations is the first hard signal that both protocols believe the contagion path is contained and that withdrawal queues can reopen without triggering a forced unwind.
Market impact
The Lazarus attribution matters as much as the dollar figure — North Korea-linked exploits rarely return funds, so a recovery path of any kind is the read the rest of the industry will watch. A clean reopen across both venues would also be the first comparable event for a restaking token pegged to Ethereum validator yields, a category that has very little prior stress data. Watch the first 48 hours of resumed withdrawals for queue depth and any deviation in the rsETH/ETH peg.
Frequently asked questions
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What happened in the Kelp DAO exploit on April 18?
Kelp DAO was exploited on April 18 for roughly $292 million. Investigators have attributed the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group, and both Kelp and Aave say they have begun recovery steps ahead of resuming rsETH operations.
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What is rsETH and why does the exploit matter for Aave?
rsETH is one of the largest liquid restaking tokens in DeFi. Aave accepted it as collateral on its lending markets, so a compromise of that size was effectively a stress test for the restaking stack and the lending venues that depend on it.
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Are the stolen funds being recovered?
Both protocols have described "successful first recovery steps," but Lazarus-linked exploits historically rarely return funds. The full extent of recovered assets and the recovery mechanism have not yet been disclosed.
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When will rsETH operations resume?
Kelp DAO and Aave said they will resume rsETH operations in the coming days, pending completion of the current recovery steps and a controlled reopening of withdrawal queues.
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What should traders watch after the restart?
The first 48 hours matter most: depth of the withdrawal queue, any deviation in the rsETH/ETH peg, and whether lending markets on Aave reprice rsETH collateral factors. The restaking token category has very little prior stress data to compare against.
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