Aave moved the first 25,000 rsETH tranche into LayerZero’s OFT adapter on Ethereum mainnet on May 13, reopening cross-chain movement for Kelp’s liquid restaking token.
The transfer marked the first operational restart for rsETH bridging since the April 18 exploit that created unbacked tokens and forced a prolonged pause.
Kelp said withdrawals would resume within 24 hours, while deposits and exchange rate updates would follow within 48 hours.
Aave Begins the Mainnet Refill Process
The first tranche reached the Ethereum mainnet adapter after Aave and Kelp DAO confirmed the transaction publicly.
The transfer landed at block 25087631, with a network fee of 0.00004376 ETH, according to the transaction details cited in the update.
The move starts the second phase of the recovery process, after the earlier burn of the exploiter’s rsETH on Arbitrum.
Kelp said the remaining tranches from Aave’s Recovery Guardian and its recovery safe will move into the lockbox over the next two weeks.
The staged refill will total 117,132 rsETH, valued at about $278 million at current prices during the latest recovery phase.
The process aims to restore backing for cross-chain circulation before normal activity resumes across supported routes.
Kelp Tightens Bridge Security After Exploit
Kelp reopened the bridge with a stricter security framework after completing a review audited by BailSec.
The upgrade increased LayerZero verification from one attestor to four independent attestors and raised block confirmation thresholds from 42 to 64. Kelp also removed all Layer 2 to Layer 2 bridge routes to reduce exposure.
The protocol is also moving its cross-chain infrastructure from LayerZero to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol.
Chainalysis attributed the April 18 exploit to a remote procedure call poisoning attack linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group subunit TraderTraitor.
The attackers reportedly compromised downstream RPC nodes used for Unichain L2 observation and fed forged data into the bridge verification process.
Recovery Continues as Market Trust Faces Test
The recovery timeline now stands at 26 days from exploit to bridge restoration. Unlike some earlier bridge incidents, the rsETH process did not depend on attacker negotiation or new outside compensation.
It used coordinated ecosystem funding through DeFi United, an on-chain burn, and a federal court order clearing a 30,765 ETH transfer to Aave.
Kelp still faces a confidence test after the pause. Its total value locked has fallen from about $2 billion in September 2025 to around $1.55 billion.
The recovered 30,765 ETH, worth about $72 million, remains in an Aave-controlled wallet pending further court authorization.
The next two weeks will show whether liquidity returns or users shift toward rival liquid restaking protocols, including Ether.fi and Renzo, that compete for restaking deposits.
