What The Kelp DAO’s $292 Million Hack Means For XRP Holders Earning Yield

A market skilled has outlined a significant safety incident that occurred final weekend, explaining its implications for XRP holders incomes yield. On Saturday, April 18, an attacker exploited the LayerZero-powered bridge of Kelp DAO, draining a staggering $292 million in tokens from the liquid staking protocol. So far, the incident marks the most important DeFi hack of 2026, triggering emergency responses throughout a number of lending platforms. 

Kelp DAO Hack Linked To Broader Cross-Chain Risks

Market skilled Iso Ledger has shared updates on the latest Kelp DAO hack, describing it as a major security breach that uncovered dangers throughout a number of DeFi platforms. In his submit on X, he said that Kelp DAO misplaced $292 million in simply 46 minutes. He mentioned the attacker funded a Tornado Cash pockets round 10 hours earlier than the exploit started. Then he known as IzRecieve, a core operate in LayerZero’s EndpointV2 contract.  

Iso Ledger reported that the only name triggered Kelp DAO’s bridge to launch 116,500 rsETH, price $292 million, on to the attacker’s pockets. He added that the quantity represented 18% of the token’s circulating provide. The skilled additionally said that the attacker had instantly used the stolen rsETH as collateral on Aave V3 to borrow ETH, creating unhealthy debt that the DeFi protocol would now want to soak up. 

Notably, Iso Ledger said that Aave has responded instantly by freezing the rsETH markets on each V3 and V4. He additionally famous that the value of Aave had fallen by a staggering 10%, including that one bridge exploit had impacted three protocols concurrently. 

Following the devastating hack, Kelp DAO and Kernel DAO, a multi-chain restaking ecosystem, made no public statements for 46 minutes because the incident unfolded. The delay had raised main considerations about protocol response instances throughout stay exploits. 

Expert Warns XRP Holders About FXRP And Bridge Dependency

In his submit, Iso Ledger mentioned that the latest Kelp DAO hack is related to XRP holders in search of yield alternatives by wrapped asset merchandise. He pointed to FXRP, the wrapped XRP launched on the Flare Network. He said that the token is deployed as a LayerZero Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) based on Flare developer documentation. 

This implies that FXRP has the identical bridge customary, cross-chain structure, and IzRecieve name that had been exploited by Kelp DAO attackers and led to the $292 million drain. The analyst compares XRP to Kelp DAO, presenting his remarks as a warning about exterior bridge dependency. 

Iso Ledger additionally defined that the most recent assault exhibits why the ecosystem is ready for XLS-66D, a native lending protocol constructed immediately into the XRP Ledger. He said that this protocol would permit the altcoin to stay on-chain while not having an exterior contract. He additionally mentioned the assault vector seen within the Kelp DAO exploit would by no means exist if the token by no means leaves the chain it was created on.