Aave has seen a sharp pullback in deposits, even though the lending protocol itself was not hacked. Data from DefiLlama show total value locked falling from $26.4 billion on April 18 to about $20 billion during U.S. morning hours on Sunday, a drop of roughly $6.6 billion. Market reaction was immediate. AAVE slid 16% to $92, liquidations accelerated over the weekend, and daily fees jumped to $1.99 million. The stress stems from a separate exploit involving Kelp, a liquid restaking protocol. Kelp routes already-staked ether into EigenLayer and issues a receipt token, rsETH, which can be traded and used as collateral across DeFi lending venues. On Saturday, attackers manipulated Kelp's cross-chain bridge into releasing 116,500 rsETH—valued at about $292 million—to an address they controlled. On-chain trackers indicate the stolen rsETH was then deposited into Aave V3 as collateral, with the attackers borrowing wrapped ether (WETH) against it. The Aave-specific borrowing linked to the incident is estimated near $196 million, with total positions across Aave, Compound and Euler around $236 million. Aave initially said its Umbrella reserve would cover any deficit. Later on Saturday, messaging shifted to the protocol "explor[ing] paths to offset the deficit," language that traders read as less definitive about the size and funding of any shortfall. Aave's exposure is amplified by how concentrated its lending book is. The protocol operates across 22 chains, but Ethereum accounts for $14.24 billion of the $17.82 billion in outstanding borrows. WETH represents 39.49% of all loans on Aave, placing the exploit directly in the collateral-to-WETH corridor that dominates activity. Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the exploit was external and Aave's contracts were not compromised. Still, the episode highlights a structural risk: Aave accepted a liquid restaking token as collateral, and the token's backing effectively evaporated due to a bridge failure outside Aave's control. Liquid restaking tokens had been whitelisted across major lending protocols as yield-bearing assets tied to a growing share of Ethereum's locked value. Risk models largely assumed these assets would maintain their peg under normal conditions, but did not account for a scenario in which collateral could collapse to zero after a weekend bridge exploit on a chain the lending protocol does not even operate on. "AAVE is the backbone of DeFi, has billions in there, and pretty much every single new DeFi infrastructure on new chains is a fork of it," trader Altcoin Sherpa wrote on X. "When AAVE has contagion risk, it shows the fragility of the entire system." With deposits fleeing, the key questions for markets are whether Umbrella is large enough to cover any hole and whether stkAAVE holders backing that reserve will ultimately absorb losses.

A major exploit tied to Kelp DAO has rattled activity on Ethereum and Arbitrum, with more than $290 million drained and DeFi lenders moving quickly to limit contagion. The attack focused on the rsETH cross-chain bridge, a key piece of infrastructure used to move liquidity across networks and support collateralized lending. The breach amplified concerns about spillover risk across interconnected protocols that rely on shared assets. Market stress showed up immediately in prices. Aave's AAVE token fell nearly 18% during the turmoil as traders reduced exposure to assets linked to the incident. On-chain investigators said the weakness was not in LayerZero's infrastructure, despite early speculation due to its role in cross-chain messaging. Researchers instead pointed to a peer-trust flaw tied to compromised source-chain keys, which allowed unauthorized access. The attacker reportedly took control of a legitimate Kelp DAO peer contract, enabling direct interaction with bridge operations and moving funds without early detection. Blockchain records also indicate the initial transactions were funded via Tornado Cash. After obtaining the assets, the exploiter avoided immediate liquidation and used a leveraged play to maintain control. The attacker deposited rsETH into lending platforms, borrowed Wrapped Ethereum against it, and expanded exposure—pulling liquidity while leaving protocols managing collateral whose value and status were uncertain. Analysts estimate the attacker now controls more than 106,000 ETH, worth close to $250 million. PeckShieldAlert said the exploiter is the #8 largest variableDebtEthWETH holder on Aave (Ethereum) with 52,443.94 units ($123M) and the #4 largest variableDebtarbWETH holder on Arbitrum with 12,381.93 units ($22M), for total holdings of 106,466.7 ETH (~$250M). The positioning increased strain across multiple venues as borrowed funds spread exposure beyond a single protocol. Aave responded by freezing all rsETH markets across its V3 and V4 deployments, disabling borrowing to curb further damage and stabilize conditions. Aave founder Stani Kulechov said core smart contracts remained secure, while the incident underscored the risks of external integrations and cross-chain dependencies. The episode highlights how quickly vulnerabilities in shared DeFi infrastructure can propagate, even when containment actions are implemented rapidly.

April 19 — Huo Xing Finance cited OnchainLens data showing the whale wallet "ThisWillMakeYouLoveAgain" sold 29,400 AAVE for 1,171 ETH, valued at about $2.73 million. The transaction crystallized losses of more than $6 million. The wallet previously bought AAVE for $11.03 million and still holds 14,993 AAVE worth roughly $1.39 million. Address: 0xbcda26b7c6fe36b4f97c21a57807817b06e15c77

ChainThink, citing on-chain analyst Aunt Ai (@ai_9684xtpa), said address 0xb0158c68 spent about $707,000 over the past 10 hours to purchase 1.85 billion ASTEROID at an average price of $0.0003822, and is now carrying an unrealized loss of nearly $100,000. The wallet has made just four meme-token trades so far, all unprofitable. Its biggest hit was a $1.64 million loss on CULT, and ASTEROID has since become its largest position. GMGN market data showed that news spread this morning that Musk agreed to make "Asteroid" the mascot of SpaceX. The Ethereum-based meme coin ASTEROID, launched in September 2024, briefly saw its market capitalization break above $160 million, touched an intraday peak of $194 million, then pulled back to around $137 million. ASTEROID is up roughly 700% over the past 24 hours, with 24-hour trading volume at about $125 million. Meme coins are known for extreme volatility, with prices largely driven by sentiment and hype rather than fundamentals or real-world utility. Investors are advised to weigh the risks carefully.

Curve Finance said it has paused its LayerZero infrastructure as a precaution after a hack targeting the rsETH LayerZero setup, while it investigates the incident and determines the root cause. The change affects CRV cross-chain bridging from BNB, Sonic, Avalanche, Fantom, Etherlink and Kava, while other networks will continue using native bridges. The crvUSD fast bridge is also affected, though the slow bridge for L2 networks remains fully operational.

Token Unlocks data cited by ME News shows a busy unlock schedule next week (times in Beijing). LayerZero (ZRO) is set to release about 25.71 million tokens on April 20 at 7:00 p.m., equal to roughly 5.34% of circulating supply and valued at about $40.4 million. Other large releases include: Humanity (H) unlocking around 105 million tokens on April 25 at 8:00 a.m. (about 4.02%, ~$10.8 million); Plasma (XPL) unlocking roughly 88.89 million tokens on April 25 at 8:00 p.m. (about 3.83%, ~$9.4 million); Hyperlane (HYPER) unlocking about 89.75 million tokens on April 22 at 8:00 p.m. (about 94.37%, ~$8.6 million); Limitless (LMTS) unlocking about 85.37 million tokens on April 22 at 8:00 p.m. (about 64.99%, ~$8.5 million); KAITO (KAITO) unlocking about 17.6 million tokens on April 20 at 8:00 p.m. (about 4.93%, ~$8.1 million). Initia (INIT) is scheduled to unlock roughly 82.94 million tokens on April 24 at 7:00 p.m. (about 45.18%, ~$7.8 million). SoSoValue (SOSO) will unlock about 13.33 million tokens on April 24 at 5:00 p.m. (about 4.35%, ~$5.5 million). Monad (MON) will unlock around 170 million tokens on April 24 at 10:00 p.m. (about 0.34%, ~$5.5 million). aPriori (APR) is slated to unlock roughly 31.88 million tokens on April 23 at 8:00 a.m. (about 12.72%, ~$5.3 million). Source: PANews

XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) staged a rebound, pulling in $55 million of fresh capital.

Open interest on the world's leading perpetual DEXs has been trending higher since falling below $12 billion in early February 2026, climbing to more than $14 billion. Over the past 30 days, @Aster_DEX recorded $61.3 billion in trading volume, while @HyperliquidX posted $188.3 billion, maintaining a commanding lead.

PRO's Large Order List shows combined BTC and ETH trading over the past 24 hours as follows. BTC recorded $835 million in total volume, with $482 million in buys and $352 million in sells, for a net buy of $130 million. ETH totaled $1.162 billion, including $681 million in buys and $481 million in sells, delivering a net buy of $199 million. Latest figures indicate major players are still positioning around key price zones. BTC shows a net order imbalance of $1.225 billion, with the largest single order at $48.4834 million. ETH posts a net order imbalance of $477 million, and the largest single order stands at $19.3044 million. Targeted levels for these large orders are available via PRO's "Large Order Tracking" indicator. Data is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.