Kelp DAO Suffers $292M Exploit, Renewing Scrutiny of DeFi Security

CoinDesk reported that Kelp DAO was hit by an attack worth $292 million, rattling the crypto lending market. Market participants largely view the incident as a near-term disruption rather than a threat to longer-term institutional adoption of DeFi. Firms including Apollo Global Management and BlackRock continue to push deeper into onchain finance, adding pressure on DeFi protocols to tighten security and strengthen governance. Experts say protocols seeking larger institutional inflows should adopt institutional-grade controls such as zero-trust architectures, resilient collateral frameworks, and smart contracts that can be independently audited.