Arbitrum DAO Approves Release of 30,765.6 ETH; Court Freeze Order Looms

Arbitrum DAO has approved the release of 30,765.6 ETH—valued at about $700 million—that had previously been frozen, with 90.96% support representing 182.2 million votes, The Block reported. The funds are intended to back the DeFi United initiative, which aims to address a $292 million shortfall tied to last month's Kelp DAO hack. Investigators have linked the attack to the suspected North Korean Lazarus Group. The exploit targeted a single-validator configuration weakness in a LayerZero-supported OFT cross-chain bridge, enabling the theft of 116,500 rsETH. Most of the stolen assets were then posted as collateral on Aave, leaving roughly $190 million in bad debt. DeFi United has already secured commitments from several contributors, including 30,000 ETH from Consensys and Joseph Lubin, a 30,000 ETH loan from Mantle, and 5,000 ETH from LayerZero.