Arbitrum freezes $71 million in ether tied to Kelp DAO exploit
The layer-2 network’s security council moved 30,766 ETH to a frozen intermediary wallet, accessible only via further governance action.
What to know:
- Arbitrum’s Security Council has frozen 30,766 ETH, worth about $71 million, linked to the $292 million rsETH exploit against Kelp DAO, placing the funds in a governance-controlled wallet.
- The emergency action, taken with input from law enforcement and without affecting other Arbitrum users or applications, prevents the original exploiter from accessing the seized funds.
- The freeze recovers roughly a quarter of the stolen assets and intensifies the dispute between Kelp and bridge provider LayerZero over responsibility for the hack and how remaining losses should be shared.
The Arbitrum Security Council has taken emergency action to freeze the 30,766 ETH being held in the address on Arbitrum One that is connected to the KelpDAO exploit. The Security Council acted with input from law enforcement as to the exploiter’s identity, and, at all times,…
— Arbitrum (@arbitrum) April 21, 2026
The council said it acted on input from law enforcement regarding the exploiter’s identity and executed the freeze “without impacting any Arbitrum users or applications.”
The transfer completed at 11:26 p.m. ET on April 20, according to Arbitrum’s statement on X. The stolen funds are no longer controllable by the address that originally held them.
The move recovers about a quarter of the total amount drained from Kelp’s LayerZero-powered bridge on Saturday, when attackers pulled 116,500 rsETH by exploiting compromised verifier infrastructure. LayerZero attributed the attack with preliminary confidence to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
