The Arbitrum DAO is voting to release some 30,766 ETH frozen by the Arbitrum Security Council to the DeFi United initiative formed following the massive Kelp DAO attack earlier this month.
In the first hour of voting, 16.9 million ARB tokens were put towards a yes vote, while no voters have voted against the proposal. The vote will run until May 7.
On April 20, the Arbitrum Security Council froze about $71.1 million worth of ETH that the Kelp DAO attacker had moved to an Arbitrum One address. Those funds were moved to 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000DA0 and would require a governance action to be released.
"The Security Council acted with input from law enforcement as to the exploiter's identity, and, at all times, weighed its commitment to the security and integrity of the Arbitrum community without impacting any Arbitrum users or applications," the council said at the time.
Days prior, attackers now suspected to be part of the North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group exploited a cross-chain communication channel used by Kelp DAO to drain $292 million worth of the protocol’s version of staked ETH, representing about 18% of rsETH's circulating supply.
Those assets were then moved to lending protocols, like Aave, Compound, and Euler, and used as collateral to borrow large amounts of WETH and other assets, creating about $236 million in debt positions.
Several protocols, including Kelp and Aave, paused contracts or markets in response to the attack. The Arbitrum Security Council, elected by the DAO, also used its emergency powers, with 9-of-12 approvals, to freeze the Arbitrum One address used by the attacker.
Some onlookers criticized the council’s move, however, raising concerns about centralized power and the lack of onchain immutability, while others defended the security council’s action based upon its mandate to serve the Arbitrum ecosystem.
The Aave-led DeFi United initiative was formed in response to the attack to raise funds and restore rsETH’s backing. Contributors have donated or loaned over $311 million worth of ETH and stablecoins as of Thursday.
If approved, Arbitrum DAO will contribute the largest sum to the initiative to date, followed by Consensys and Joseph Lubin’s combined 30,000 ETH contribution and Mantle’s 30,000 ETH loan. Aave DAO also has a pending vote to release 25,000 ETH, adding to Stani Kulechov’s 5,000 ETH.
LayerZero also kicked in 5,000 ETH to DeFi United and will deploy an additional 5,000 ETH on AAVE, which will accrue interest. Kelp, meanwhile, contributed 2,000 ETH.
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