Arbitrum vote to release $71M in frozen Kelp exploit ETH set to pass

Latest NewsPublishedMay 7, 2026

The Snapshot vote would move the recovery effort toward a binding onchain Arbitrum governance proposal.

A joint proposal to release the roughly $71 million in Ether frozen after the Kelp DAO exploit is set to pass later on Thursday, moving a cross-protocol recovery effort closer to restoring part of rsETH’s backing.

Over 90.5% of the tokens were cast in favor of the motion, representing 173.9 million Arbitrum (ARB) tokens, while 9.4%, or 18.1 million tokens, abstained. Less than 1%, or 1,700 tokens, voted against the proposal before the voting period’s scheduled end at 6:54 pm UTC, according to a Snapshot at the time of writing.

Co-authored by Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, LayerZero, EtherFi and Compound, the proposal seeks to unfreeze the 30,765 Ether (ETH) that was frozen by Arbitrum’s Security Council on April 21, days after an attacker drained about 116,500 restaked Ether (rsETH) from Kelp Dao, worth between $290 million and $293 million at the time.

The proposal marks the end of the first round of voting, bringing the “DeFi United” recovery effort closer to restoring part of rsETH's backing and moving the motion to a definitive onchain governance proposal. It comes shortly after Aave Labs liquidated the Kelp DAO hacker’s remaining rsETH positions on Ethereum and Arbitrum, moving one step closer to resolution.

“DeFi United” is a recovery effort initiated by DeFi protocols, including Mantle, EtherFi Foundation, Golem Foundation, Lido DAO, Ethena, LayerZero, Ink Foundation and Tydro, who have pledged a cumulative 43,000 Ether (worth about $101 million) to reduce the contagion effect of the Kelp DAO exploit.

As the next step, the protocols will conduct a snapshot “temperature check” to gauge delegate sentiment before the proposal is finally submitted onchain via Tally as a Constitutional Arbitrum Improvement Proposal (AIP).

Joint proposal to release funds frozen by Arbitrum’s security council. Source: Snapshot.org

Subject to a binding onchain governance vote, the funds would be released in a designated recovery address ‘0xf22’ in a 3-of-4 Gnosis Safe (SAFE) with signers from Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, Certora and EtherFi.

However, even if the final governance proposal passes, rsETH’s backing is still facing a shortfall of about 76,127 rsETH, currently worth about $174.5 million. The proposal argued that even partially restoring rsETH’s backing will help stabilize market conditions in the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Cointelegraph reached out to Arbitrum and Aave for comment on the next steps in the governance process and the proposed timeline for restoring rsETH’s backing.

Arbitrum to pass proposal to deploy 6,000 ETH for yield

The Arbitrum DAO is also poised to approve a separate proposal to move 6,000 ETH, currently worth about $14 million, from the DAO treasury into its Treasury Management Portfolio.

The proposal increases the planned ETH allocation from 5,000 ETH to 6,000 ETH after forum feedback, according to the Arbitrum governance forum. It also seeks to transfer about $150,000 worth of idle USDC into the portfolio to generate additional yield

More than 99.9% of voting power was in favor of the proposal, representing 185.7 million ARB tokens, while 0.1%, or 266,930 ARB, abstained. The voting window is scheduled to close Friday at 2:22 pm UTC, according to Tally.

Proposal to transfer 6,000 ETH to Arbitrum DAO’s portfolio. Source: alt.gov.arbitrum.foundation.

The 6,000 ETH allocated to yield strategies is projected to generate an additional 288 ETH worth about $625,000 in the next year, assuming an ETH price of $2,200, based on the current 30-day-average annualized rate.

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