Arbitrum Freezes $71.2M ETH Tied to Kelp Protocol Hack

The frozen ETH can no longer be accessed by the address that originally held the funds.

Crypto News

Arbitrum's security council voted to freeze 30,766 ETH worth approximately $71.2 million on Monday, moving the funds to an intermediary wallet after tracing them to an address connected to the recent Kelp protocol exploit.

The Kelp liquid restaking protocol was hacked on Saturday through its LayerZero-powered bridge, with attackers draining at least $293 million. LayerZero attributed the attack to a state-sponsored threat actor, without providing further attribution details publicly.

The frozen ETH can no longer be accessed by the address that originally held the funds. Arbitrum said the assets "can only be moved by further action by Arbitrum governance," placing them under collective institutional control pending further review.

Nine of the 12 elected members of the Arbitrum Security Council voted in favor of the freeze. Council member Griff Green posted on X that the group "did not make this decision lightly, there were countless hours of debates, technical, practical, ethical and political." Arbitrum added that the council acted with input from LawEnforcement.

The Kelp exploit has created millions of dollars in bad debt across the broader