DeFi United raises ~69K ETH

DeFi United pulled together about 69,534 ETH in pledges by April 24 to help refill the hole left by the April 18 Kelp DAO rsETH exploit. (theblock.co) (defiunited.fyi) The fund was assembled after an attacker minted unbacked rsETH through a compromised LayerZero bridge path, then posted it on Aave to borrow real assets and leave bad debt behind. (theblock.co) Aave service providers proposed contributing 25,000 ETH on April 24, while Mantle proposed a low-interest credit facility of up to 30,000 ETH to absorb any remaining damage. (theblock.co 1) (theblock.co 2) Ether.fi proposed 5,000 ETH, Lido Labs proposed up to 2,500 stETH, Aave founder Stani Kulechov said he would add 5,000 ETH personally, and Aave engineering executive Emilio Frangella pledged 500 ETH. (theblock.co 1) (theblock.co 2) The tracker for the effort showed 100,400 ETH committed when Arbitrum’s frozen ETH was counted, leaving about 16,100 ETH still uncovered at that snapshot. Excluding the freeze, the directly pledged pool was the roughly 69,534 ETH figure attached to DeFi United. (defiunited.fyi) Arbitrum’s Security Council separately froze 30,765.6675 ETH linked to the exploiter on April 21 and moved it into a governance-controlled address. Those coins cannot be released without another governance action. (forum.arbitrum.foundation) (theblock.co) On April 25, Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, LayerZero, Ether.fi and Compound asked Arbitrum DAO to approve sending that frozen ETH into the same recovery effort. The proposal said the money would be used to make affected rsETH holders whole and restore rsETH backing. (theblock.co) (forum.arbitrum.foundation) The episode spread beyond one token because rsETH had been used across lending markets, vaults and looping trades, where users repeatedly borrowed against staked Ether to amplify yield. Lido said the exploit created pressure on market rates, borrow markets and forced unwinds across linked products. (theblock.co) The Block reported DeFi total value locked at just above $80 billion after the shock, down more than 27% from about $110 billion at the start of 2026. Its reporting also said some analysts see repeated exploits pushing users toward stablecoins. (theblock.co) The immediate question now is not whether DeFi United exists, but which of its proposed contributions and governance votes actually clear. The recovery math depends on those approvals, plus whatever Arbitrum voters decide to do with the frozen 30,765.67 ETH. (defiunited.fyi) (forum.arbitrum.foundation)