Justin Sun Offers To Broker $292M Deal With KelpDAO Hacker Behind DeFi Exploit

Justin Sun has publicly urged the hacker behind the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit to negotiate, warning the attack could drag both Kelp and Aave(AAVE) under.

Sun's Direct Appeal

The Tron founder posted the offer on X on Sunday, directly addressing the attacker who drained 116,500 rsETH from Kelp's cross-chain bridge the day before.

"OK, Kelpdao hacker, how much you want? Let's just talk," Sun wrote.

He argued the loot cannot be moved at that scale without triggering law enforcement, and that sinking Kelp and Aave would leave the stolen haul worthless.

On-chain data shows Sun pulled 65,584 Ether(ETH), roughly $154 million, out of Aave before making the appeal.

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Lazarus Suspicions, Aave Contagion

LayerZero has blamed the theft on a sophisticated state actor, with researchers pointing to North Korea's Lazarus Group. The attacker forged a cross-chain message, releasing rsETH without a matching deposit.

Those tokens were then pledged as collateral on Aave V3 to borrow roughly $195 million in wrapped ether, leaving the lender with more than $236 million in bad debt. Aave's total value locked slid from $26.4 billion to near $20 billion in two days.

The Kelp incident follows the $285 million Drift exploit on Apr. 1 and the $80 million Resolv Labs breach in March, pushing total DeFi losses for 2026 past $450 million.

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