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DeFi TVL Drops on All Top 20 Chains After KelpDAO Exploit

Published

2 hours ago

20 April 2026

DeFi TVL Drops on All Top 20 Chains After KelpDAO Exploit

The selloff accelerated after the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit on April 18, which drained 116,500 rsETH through a compromised LayerZero-powered cross-chain bridge.

Data from DefiLlama shows Ethereum, which dominates 53.91% of all DeFi TVL, lost 17.91% of its locked value in the past month. The chain now holds $46.17 billion, down from over $56 billion before the hack wave began.

Is Money Leaving DeFi?

The data shows a clear trend: capital is exiting. This DeFi sector contraction mirrors patterns seen in previous risk-off periods, but the breadth of losses stands out.

Solana dropped 19.04% monthly despite a slight 0.17% weekly gain. BSC fell 5.61%. Even Bitcoin DeFi, which had been growing rapidly with a 71.60% monthly gain earlier in the cycle, lost 1.91% in the past 24 hours as contagion spread.

The worst performers tell the story. Mantle collapsed 52.01% in 30 days, falling from over $600 million to $303 million. Ink dropped 34.80%. Katana lost 18.65%. Hyperliquid L1 fell 17.73%. Arbitrum, once considered a safe haven for DeFi activity, declined 16.00% monthly.

Only two chains in the top 20 posted positive monthly gains: Tron at 24.07% and OP Mainnet at 82.11%. Both benefited from stablecoin flows seeking perceived safety outside the Ethereum restaking ecosystem.

DeFi Total Value Locked, Source: DeFiLlama

Kelp DAO Hack Triggers Contagion Across DeFi

The $292 million exploit targeted Kelp DAO’s cross-chain bridge infrastructure. Attackers used poisoned RPC nodes and a DDoS attack to manipulate a single verifier configuration, draining funds across Ethereum and Arbitrum in minutes.

The contagion spread rapidly. Aave urged WETH suppliers to withdraw due to rsETH exposure, triggering billions in outflows from the largest DeFi lending protocol. Ethena, Curve Finance, ether.fi, and Tron DAO froze their LayerZero OFT bridges as a precaution.

LayerZero Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a Lazarus Group subunit previously linked to the Drift Protocol exploit earlier this month.

Are Users Repricing DeFi Risk?

The TVL decline suggests users are reassessing cross-chain infrastructure risk. Kelp, previously considered one of the top DeFi protocols with over $2 billion in TVL, now faces existential questions about its ability to make users whole.

Plasma lost 28.99% in seven days. Ink dropped 33.30% weekly. These sharp moves indicate active withdrawals rather than passive price depreciation.

Ethereum still dominates with 53.91% of all DeFi TVL, followed by Solana at 6.49%, BSC at 6.34%, Bitcoin at 5.91%, and Tron at 5.89%. But dominance without growth signals a shrinking pie rather than a flight to quality.

The question facing DeFi is whether this represents a temporary repricing or a structural shift in how users evaluate bridge and restaking risk.

The post DeFi TVL Drops on All Top 20 Chains After KelpDAO Exploit appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver Says he Won‘t Placate Prediction Markets

Published

2 minutes ago

21 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver Says he Won‘t Placate Prediction Markets

John Oliver, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, targeted prediction market platforms on his show’s latest weekly deep dive.

In Sunday’s airing of the HBO show, Oliver discussed some of the trivial event contracts on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, including betting whether members of the Trump administration would use certain words in public addresses, to the companies’ controversial partnering with news organizations.

Specifically, the host questioned Donald Trump Jr.’s relationship with both platforms — an adviser to Kalshi and Polymarket — and how the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “doesn’t even seem to be trying” to block event contracts on terrorism, assassination and war under Chair Michael Selig.

For much of the show, Oliver discussed how it is “incredibly easy for individuals to manipulate the outcomes,” citing Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong rattling off a list of crypto-related words in his third-quarter 2025 earnings call to cause many Kalshi and Polymarket users to win their bets.

“I’m going to make you a promise tonight,” said Oliver, echoing Armstrong’s statement. “I will never do anything because someone online placed a bet on it. So you can be confident that if I ever say Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking and Web3, it won’t be because I’m trying to move markets — it will be because I’m having a stroke.”

While user activity and trading volume on prediction markets have increased exponentially in recent months — expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030 — the platforms’ controversial bets and legal status in US states have raised eyebrows for some experts. Gaming authorities in several states are suing companies like Kalshi over alleged illegal sports betting, with Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal and others expecting the legal fight to end up before the US Supreme Court.

Financial giants looking to expand into prediction markets?

In addition to previously announced partnerships with media giants like CNN, CNBC, Fox News and Dow Jones, traditional financial companies including Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities recently signaled plans to consider prediction markets.

Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster said on a Thursday investors call that the company would “take a hard look at” prediction markets. In a separate event the same day, Citadel Securities President Jim Esposito said that the company was “absolutely keeping an eye on developments” as part of a potential move into the market.