Aave published its technical implementation plan for DeFi United, a coordinated effort to recover the backing of KelpDAO's rsETH LST following the LayerZero bridge exploit on April 18, 2026. Beyond restoring rsETH's full backing, the recovery plan also includes steps to recover the 107,000 rsETH being used as collateral across seven exploiter addresses on Aave and Compound Finance.

Yesterday, DeFi United announced that it secured sufficient ETH commitments to bring rsETH back to its nominal 1.07 ETH exchange ratio. The ETH will be converted to rsETH in tranches and deposited into the bridge lockbox, allowing the bridge to resume operations.

Recovering the rsETH collateral in DeFi will involve governance proposals to temporarily adjust rsETH's oracle price on both Ethereum and Arbitrum, enabling controlled liquidations of the exploiter's positions. The recovered rsETH will then be redeemed for ETH through Kelp and used to clear the resulting deficits on both networks. Compound will execute a similar process.

Once the recovery is complete, all temporary configuration changes will be fully reverted, and frozen markets will be unfrozen, allowing lenders to withdraw collateral. Aave noted that the successful execution relies on the attacker not interfering with the liquidation sequence.

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LayerZero, the bridging protocol whose infrastructure was exploited in the April 18 rsETH attack, announced it is contributing 5,000 ETH to DeFi United's recovery effort. It is also supplying an additional 5,000 ETH to support Aave market liquidity, bringing its total commitment to 10,000 ETH. LayerZero had signaled its intent to contribute last week but withheld the amount until today's announcement.

DeFi United's total fundraise has surpassed 137,708 ETH, currently worth approximately $315 million. The Aave DAO leads contributions with 25,000 ETH, followed by EtherFi and Stani Kulechov personally. Compound Finance has pledged 3,000 ETH, Lido Finance 2,500 ETH, KelpDAO 2,000 ETH, and Golem 1,000 ETH.

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Consensys and Joseph Lubin have committed up to 30,000 ETH in financial support toward the DeFi United rsETH recovery effort. SharpLink is also participating in a strategic advisory capacity. The contribution is particularly significant given that the 30,765.67 ETH frozen by the Arbitrum Security Council will not be liquid for approximately 49 days pending governance approval.

The rsETH backing shortfall is now effectively covered by a combination of previously announced and newly confirmed commitments. These include contributions from Aave DAO, Lido, EtherFi, Ethena, Mantle, and Compound Finance, which committed 3,000 ETH. The Babylon Foundation is also depositing 3 million USDT into Aave, and Tron is depositing 20 million USDT into Aave to assist with liquidity. The stablecoin deposits have helped ease utilization rates slightly, allowing USDT lenders to begin withdrawing.

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Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.