The Arbitrum DAO is on the verge of releasing 30,765 ETH — worth roughly $71 million — that was frozen by its Security Council in the wake of the Kelp DAO exploit in April. The move, part of a cross‑protocol recovery effort called DeFi United, aims to partially restore the backing of Kelp’s liquid restaking token rsETH, which was drained of 116,500 rsETH (then valued at $290–293 million).
A joint proposal co‑authored by Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, LayerZero, EtherFi, and Compound has garnered overwhelming support: over 90.5% of voting power — representing 173.9 million ARB tokens — voted in favor, while 9.4% abstained and less than 1% opposed. The funds were locked on 21 April after the attacker drained the restaking protocol, and if the final on‑chain governance vote passes, the ETH will be moved to a 3‑of‑4 multisignature wallet controlled by Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, Certora, and EtherFi.
The DeFi United recovery plan brings together numerous protocols — including Mantle, EtherFi Foundation, Golem Foundation, Lido DAO, Ethena, LayerZero, Ink Foundation, and Tydro — which collectively pledged 43,000 ETH (~$101 million). Recent steps include liquidating the attacker’s remaining rsETH positions across Ethereum and Arbitrum, reducing immediate risk.
Even if the proposal succeeds, rsETH still faces a shortfall of about 76,127 rsETH (~$174.5 million). The proposal argues that restoring even part of the collateral base will limit wider market disruption, though full recovery remains uncertain.
In a separate treasury‑management initiative, the Arbitrum DAO also approved allocating 6,000 ETH ($14 million) from its treasury into a yield‑generating portfolio, aiming to earn about 288 ETH annually, alongside $150,000 in idle USDC.
