Kelp DAO Ditches LayerZero for Chainlink CCIP Following $292M Exploit

According to The Block, Kelp DAO is abandoning LayerZero as its cross-chain infrastructure provider in favor of Chainlink, becoming the first major protocol to move away from LayerZero following the $292 million exploit last month. On April 18, attackers linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group exploited a single-verifier configuration in LayerZero's Omnichain Fungible Token bridge, draining 116,500 rsETH from Kelp DAO.

LayerZero had recommended the 1-of-1 Decentralized Verifier Network setup as its default configuration; analysis shows 47% of approximately 2,665 LayerZero applications were running the same single-verifier setup at the time of the attack. Chainlink's decentralized oracle networks require at least 16 independent node operators to validate cross-chain transactions, providing enhanced security. Kelp DAO will also adopt Chainlink's Cross-Chain Token standard, with rsETH leveraging Chainlink's infrastructure that has supported over $30 trillion in cross-chain transaction value to date.