Arbitrum council rotates multisig keys, executes emergency ETH-freeze transactions

Arbitrum DAO said on May 22 that its Security Council had updated the signer set on multiple council multisigs after the March 2026 election results took effect. The post linked to transactions covering the Arbitrum One emergency multisig, Arbitrum One non-emergency multisig, Arbitrum Nova emergency multisig and the Ethereum emergency multisig, according to the DAO’s governance forum. The change followed the end of the election grace period for the March 2026 cohort. The same council is also the body that carried out Arbitrum’s most visible recent intervention: an emergency freeze of about 30,766 ETH tied to the KelpDAO exploit. ### Which keys were rotated, and why did it happen now? The Arbitrum Foundation forum post published on May 22 said the March 2026 Security Council election process was “finally complete” and that the results had been effectuated after the grace period ended. The post named six members in the new cohort: Michael Lewellen, DZack23, yoav.eth, Certora represented by Elad Erdheim, bartek.eth and Pablo Sabbatella. It also said the election results had taken effect across relevant chains and listed the multisigs updated as part of that process. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) The Security Council is a 12-member body that rotates in cohorts through DAO elections, with members holding keys that can approve emergency and non-emergency actions on Arbitrum-governed systems. The May 22 update did not announce a new emergency measure; it documented the signer changes after the election became effective. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) ### What exactly was the emergency freeze? An Arbitrum forum post dated April 21 said the Security Council executed an emergency action at 11:26 p.m. ET to freeze 30,765.667501709008927568 ETH held by the “KelpDAO Exploiter” on Arbitrum One. The post said the funds were moved to 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000DA0, a frozen holding address under council control. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) The freeze followed the April 18 exploit of KelpDAO’s LayerZero V2 bridge route, which a separate Arbitrum forum post said allowed an attacker to mint unbacked rsETH on Ethereum mainnet. That post said the exploit triggered freezes on Aave, higher borrow rates across several protocols and broader stress in ETH-denominated markets. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) ### Why did Arbitrum step in instead of leaving the funds untouched? The April 21 emergency-action post said the frozen ETH was held on Arbitrum One and identified as exploiter funds. A later constitutional proposal on the Arbitrum forum said the council’s action created the current situation in which the DAO must decide where the immobilized ETH should go next. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) Discussion on Arbitrum’s forum shows the intervention also reopened a familiar governance argument. A forum thread published after the freeze said users on X were debating whether the move showed necessary incident response or too much centralized authority for a layer-2 network. ### What happens to the 30,765 ETH now? (forum.arbitrum.foundation) An Arbitrum governance roundup published on May 19 said an amended proposal authored by Aave Labs, KelpDAO, LayerZero, EtherFi and Compound asks the DAO to release the 30,765.67 ETH into a coordinated recovery effort for affected rsETH holders. The same roundup said voting on that proposal ends on May 28. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) The proposal text says the release destination would be a 2-of-3 Gnosis Safe with signers from Aave, KelpDAO and Certora, scoped to the recovery effort. Until that vote is resolved, the ETH remains in the frozen address created by the council’s April 21 action. ### Why does the May 22 post matter if the freeze happened in April? (forum.arbitrum.foundation) The May 22 post matters because it shows the same governance machinery moving from emergency response back into ordinary administration. The election results are now in force, the signer sets have been updated on the relevant multisigs, and the next major decision is no longer whether the council can freeze the ETH but whether tokenholders approve its release. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) May 28 is the next date to watch. That is when voting is scheduled to end on the amended frozen-ETH release proposal on the Arbitrum DAO forum, with Aave Labs, KelpDAO, LayerZero, EtherFi and Compound listed as authors. (forum.arbitrum.foundation 1) (forum.arbitrum.foundation 2)