Kelp Restarts rsETH Bridging via LayerZero OFT Adapter on Ethereum
Aave transferred the first 25,000 rsETH tranche into the LayerZero OFT adapter on Ethereum mainnet on May 13, formally restarting rsETH bridging after the April 18 LayerZero exploit that drained ~$292M in unbacked tokens.
Kelp said rsETH contracts will unpause withdrawals within 24 hours once the tranche reaches the Ethereum adapter. Deposits and exchange-rate updates are expected within 48 hours, and staking rewards paused during the incident will be credited to all rsETH holders.
Security measures were also upgraded: LayerZero verification increased from 1 to 4 independent attestors, block confirmation thresholds rose from 42 to 64, L2-to-L2 routes were deprecated, and Kelp is migrating infrastructure toward Chainlink CCIP. The post-mortem attributed the breach to an RPC poisoning attack linked to Lazarus Group’s TraderTraitor unit.
Over the next two weeks, remaining Aave Recovery Guardian and Kelp recovery tranches will be staged into the adapter, targeting up to 117,132 rsETH. Recovered attacker funds (30,765 ETH) remain in an Aave-controlled wallet pending authorization.
For traders, the rsETH bridging restart should reduce near-term liquidity and redemption uncertainty for holders, but broader bridge-risk concerns may keep sentiment cautious.
Neutral
The restart directly improves rsETH bridging usability by reopening withdrawals and resuming the flow of legitimate collateral back into the LayerZero lockbox. That can lower redemption and liquidity stress for rsETH holders in the near term.
However, the news is still dominated by a major bridge exploit and a long tail of governance/authorization steps (e.g., remaining tranches staged over two weeks, attacker funds pending). Even with hardening (more attestors, higher confirmations, route deprecation, CCIP migration), traders may price in lingering bridge-risk and headline-driven volatility.
Net effect on rsETH-related price is likely mixed: constructive for functionality and confidence, but capped by ongoing security overhang and execution risk.