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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The Summer of Protocols (SoP), a research and development program originally seeded by the Ethereum Foundation, relaunched as The Protocol Institute. The initiative aims to advance the study, design, and stewardship of protocols and build a field and community capable of doing so long-term.

The Institute defines protocols as invisible infrastructural technologies that coordinate human behavior, producing society's most valuable outputs like safety, peace, and public health. The Institute exists to ensure protocols are systematically valued and invested in, operating across research, entrepreneurship, governance, culture, and education. Its key activities include the Protocolized publication, Special Interest Groups, an annual Protocol Symposium, and a Protocol School.

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