A week after the Kelp DAO bridge exploit tore through the largest lending protocol in DeFi, the bailout sheet has started to look almost as big as the hole itself.
Fresh on-chain tracking from Lookonchain shows that DeFi United, the coordinated relief vehicle stitched together by Aave’s service providers, has now pulled in 14 ecosystem participants and individual contributors, with disclosed commitments totaling 69,642 ETH worth roughly $161 million at current prices.
The figure is up from the 69,534 ETH number that was making the rounds earlier this week, and it reflects how quickly fresh pledges are stacking up as governance discussions move forward across multiple DAOs.
Who is putting in what
Mantle sits at the top of the funding stack with a proposed 30,000 ETH facility, structured as a low-interest loan rather than a donation. The Aave DAO follows with a 25,000 ETH treasury contribution that has already been put up for a Snapshot vote.
After that, the list spreads out across protocols and individual donors. Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave, has personally pledged 5,000 ETH, calling Aave his “life’s work.” Ether.Fi has matched that with another 5,000 ETH, while Lido is contributing 2,500 stETH.
Smaller but meaningful pledges have come from the Golem Foundation at 1,000 ETH, Aave VP of Engineering Emilio Frangella at 500 ETH, public donations through definited.eth at 272 ETH, BGD Labs at 250 ETH, Ernesto at 100 ETH, and the Keyring Network at 20 ETH.
Four more participants, namely LayerZero, Ethena, the Ink Foundation, along with Tydro and Frax Finance, have all confirmed they will be contributing, though they have not put exact figures on the table yet.
Why this matters
The Kelp DAO exploit on April 18 left a hole of about 116,500 unbacked rsETH, which the attacker dumped into Aave V3 as collateral and borrowed real assets against. That single move triggered over $10 billion in withdrawals from Aave, pinned its USDC pool at 100% utilization for four straight days, and helped push April into the worst month DeFi has ever recorded.
Once Kelp’s freeze, Arbitrum’s frozen 30,766 ETH, expected liquidations, and the DeFi United stack are added together, on-chain trackers, including DCF GOD, have estimated that the rsETH shortfall is now effectively covered. If every proposal clears governance, Aave may not even need to draw on the full Mantle facility.
That changes the tone of the conversation. What started as a damage-control scramble has turned into one of the largest coordinated relief efforts the DeFi sector has ever seen, with rival protocols pooling capital to protect a shared user base rather than waiting for any single party to absorb the loss.
For now, the focus shifts to governance execution. The Aave Snapshot vote, the Lido Aragon vote, and the Mantle credit facility all need to pass before the funds actually move. Until then, the 69,642 ETH figure remains a pledge sheet, but it is the most well-stocked one DeFi has ever assembled in a crisis.
Also Read: Black April 2026: $606M Stolen, $13B TVL Exodus in DeFi’s Darkest Month
