The DeFi United coalition crossed its rsETH backing target after a flood of weekend commitments from across the Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Avalanche, and Bitcoin ecosystems.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the DeFi United recovery fund has reached the level needed to fully back rsETH, subject to pending votes, indicative agreements, and successful execution, after a wave of new commitments over the weekend pushed the coalition past an initial 163,200 ETH shortfall.
The milestone caps a frenetic stretch since the April 18 KelpDAO bridge exploit, which drained 152,577 rsETH from Kelp’s LayerZero bridge adapter and saddled Aave with between $123.7 million and $230.1 million in bad debt, depending on how Kelp ultimately allocates losses across rsETH holders.
Consensys, the company behind MetaMask, and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin have committed up to 30,000 ETH to the recovery effort, with Nasdaq-listed Sharplink joining in an advisory capacity, according to a press release viewed by The Defiant. The contribution is structured to make funds available immediately while standard governance processes for other contributors run in parallel.
Kulechov said the support materially advances the recovery and credited the contributors with making funds available without delay. Lubin said the Ethereum ecosystem “has always been at its best when it moves together.”
Cross-chain Solidarity
The recovery effort drew support from across the crypto ecosystem over the weekend.
TRON founder Justin Sun said TRON DAO and exchange HTX would jointly supply $20 million in USDT to Aave’s Core V3 market, calling the move “a show of support to bring AAVE to TRON.”
Solana Foundation president Lily Liu separately said the foundation would lend USDT on Aave for the first time and bring the AAVE token to Solana this weekend, noting that Solana had previously supported Tether’s $127.5 million recovery plan for Drift Protocol after that protocol’s April 1 exploit.
The Avalanche Foundation said it would support DeFi United, framing the coordinated response as a public stress-test of DeFi’s “transparent books and real accountability,” in contrast to traditional finance.
Bitcoin restaking protocol Babylon committed $3 million in USDT to Aave, with $2 million allocated to V3 and $1 million to V4. The Babylon Foundation said any interest earned on the deposit would be redirected back into the Aave ecosystem through incentives.
Liquid restaking protocol Renzo said it had supplied more than $10 million from its treasury into Aave V3 stablecoin markets, calling the past week “a true test for the DeFi ecosystem.”
Meanwhile, Circle Ventures said it was purchasing AAVE tokens directly, citing Aave’s role in shaping the future of onchain finance.
What’s Next
Kulechov’s announcement carried three explicit caveats: pending votes, indicative agreements, and successful execution. Several of the largest commitments, including the Aave DAO’s proposed 25,000 ETH contribution, Mantle’s 30,000 ETH credit facility, and Lido’s 2,500 stETH allocation, must pass through their respective governance processes.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
