#AAVE
đš $AAVE plummets 22%: KelpDAO hack results in $294 million loss
The biggest security incident of 2026 has sent markets into a tailspin. Leading landing protocols have been hit after an unknown hacker breached the KelpDAO bridge and siphoned off nearly $300 million in rsETH tokens.
đ What happened?
The attacker acted with lightning speed:
1. The stolen funds were deposited as collateral in Aave V3, Compound V3, and Euler.
2. The hacker borrowed massive amounts of WETH against this collateral, creating over $236 million in bad debt.
3. Although Aave was quickly frozen by the affected markets, this did not stop the massive investor exodus.
đ Whale Dump
According to Lookonchain, big players have started to aggressively dump AAVE tokens, which accelerated the decline:
âą smaugvision sold $20,015 of AAVE for $2.06 million USDC.
âą Address 0xFC56 dumped $20,000 of AAVE ($2.05 million USDC).
âą A third major wallet exchanged $19,666 of AAVE for a mix of ETH and WBTC.
đ Figures and implications
âą Price spike: The token fell from yesterdayâs peak of $120 to $92.
âą Capitalization: $AAVE fell out of the TOP-50 altcoins, its market value decreased to $1.4 billion.
âą Status: There is uncertainty in the market as investors fear the long-term impact of âbad debtâ on the stability of the protocol.
