KelpDAO suffered a $293 million exploit on April 18 when attackers compromised the RPC infrastructure underpinning its LayerZero cross-chain bridge, poisoning data feeds and draining rsETH holdings. The attack vector was a single-verifier configuration on the LayerZero OApp, meaning one point of failure unlocked a nine-figure loss. Attribution has been made to North Korea's Lazarus Group, elevating the incident from opportunistic exploit to state-sponsored infrastructure attack.
For Armada's crypto repo desk, this event directly challenges the collateral viability of liquid restaking tokens like rsETH that depend on cross-chain bridge integrity for price discovery and redemption. Fireblocks custody controls do not mitigate smart contract or bridge-layer risk at origination. Armada should flag any LRT collateral in the current or pipeline book to legal and risk, and consider imposing bridge-dependency haircuts pending protocol-level remediation.