{"id":71422,"date":"2026-04-20T20:46:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/14b-vanishes-from-defi-ecosystem-after-kelpdao-exploit-rocks-lending-markets\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:46:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:46:30","slug":"14b-vanishes-from-defi-ecosystem-after-kelpdao-exploit-rocks-lending-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/14b-vanishes-from-defi-ecosystem-after-kelpdao-exploit-rocks-lending-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"$14B Vanishes From DeFi Ecosystem After KelpDAO Exploit Rocks Lending Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">KelpDAO exploit drained $300M+ on Apr. 18, hitting Aave with bad debt and freezes.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Defillama data shows <span>DeFi<\/span> TVL fell $14.17B to $85.32B, signaling system-wide stress.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Lido leads TVL as Aave drops 32.44%, while <span>RWA<\/span> and <span>liquid staking<\/span> post 7-day gains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>KelpDAO Fallout Pressures <span>DeFi<\/span> Markets, Billions Exit in 24 Hours<\/h2>\n<p>Over the weekend, <span>Bitcoin.com<\/span> News <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/zachxbt-flags-280m-kelpdao-exploit-hitting-ethereum-defi-lending-markets\/\">reported<\/a> on the KelpDAO exploit, which involved the draining of roughly 116,500 rsETH before the assets were deployed as collateral across <span>DeFi<\/span> protocols, triggering freezes and the buildup of bad debt, much of it <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/defi-lender-aave-battles-withdrawal-crisis-after-kelpdao-rseth-exploit\/\">concentrated<\/a> on the lending platform Aave.<\/p>\n<p>Because rsETH served extensively as collateral across tightly linked <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/unlocking-the-future-your-fun-guide-to-decentralized-finance-and-web3\/\">DeFi<\/a> protocols, the exploit rapidly triggered freezes and <span>liquidity<\/span> strain elsewhere, transmitting the shock across the system.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_807800\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-807800\" style=\"width:1676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-807800\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The value locked in <span>DeFi<\/span> protocols tracked by defillama.com dropped from $99.49 billion to today\u2019s $85.32 billion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since the incident, the total value locked (TVL) across all <span>DeFi<\/span> protocols tracked by <a href=\"https:\/\/defillama.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defillama.com<\/a> has declined by approximately $14.17 billion, falling from $99.49 billion to the current $85.32 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past week, Aave\u2019s TVL has fallen 32.44% to its current level of $17.038 billion. In total, it lost just over $8 billion or 57.73% of the $14.17 billion that left the <span>DeFi<\/span> sector since April 18. <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/aave-labs-secures-25m-stablecoin-grant-as-dao-formalizes-revenue-control-model\/\">Aave<\/a> once held the top position among <span>DeFi<\/span> protocols by TVL, but that title now belongs to the <span>liquid staking<\/span> application Lido.<\/p>\n<p>Across the sector, <span>DeFi<\/span> protocols recorded notable outflows this week, with Morpho down 9.62%, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/safe-and-ethena-partner-to-boost-usde-on-multisig-wallets\/\">Ethena<\/a> slipping 7.79%, and Sky (formerly MakerDAO) declining 9.76% over the last seven days.<\/p>\n<p>The <span>DeFi<\/span> application Spark posted a steeper contraction of roughly 31.6% this week. Curve Finance registered an 11.09% decline, while Pendle\u2019s TVL decreased by 12.4%. Solv Protocol recorded a sharp drop at 68.09%, followed by EulerDAO at 51.74% and Predict Fun at 51.64%.<\/p>\n<p>Losses continued with Merlinswap down 42.4% and Overnight Finance falling 40.13%, while Sentora posted a 38.52% decline. Abracadabra dropped 33.42% and Apebond fell 33.34%, and Vectis Finance took a 30.69% hit.<\/p>\n<p>Re7 Labs shed 30.09%, followed by Kumbaya at 28.41%, Treehouse at 26.46%, and Dolomite at 24.7%. The wrath this week was harsh to say the least, and the KelpDAO exploit only exacerbated the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Other segments of the <span>DeFi<\/span> protocol sector, however, recorded gains, with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-a-liquid-staking-token\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">liquid staking<\/a> platforms, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/tokenized-us-treasuries-near-14b-as-circle-blackrock-lead-rwa-market-growth\/\">real-world asset (RWA)<\/a> products, and similar vehicles posting increases over the past seven days.<\/p>\n<p>The episode highlights how tightly coupled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-defi-decentralized-finance\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeFi<\/a> systems can amplify localized failures, leaving protocols exposed to rapid capital flight, while select sectors such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-a-liquid-staking-token\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">liquid staking<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-are-real-world-assets-rwa\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RWA<\/a> products continue to attract inflows despite broader strain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/14b-vanishes-from-defi-ecosystem-after-kelpdao-exploit-rocks-lending-markets\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways: KelpDAO exploit drained $300M+ on Apr. 18, hitting Aave with bad debt and freezes. Defillama data shows DeFi TVL fell $14.17B to $85.32B, signaling system-wide stress. Lido leads TVL as Aave drops 32.44%, while RWA and liquid staking post 7-day gains. KelpDAO Fallout Pressures DeFi Markets, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":71423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}