Aave founder claims protocol is "resilient," but $8.45 billion deposit run reveals risks

According to Odaily, in April of this year, KelpDAO's LayerZero bridge suffered a $292 million exploit, triggering a run on Aave that saw $8.45 billion in deposits withdrawn within 48 hours, marking the largest capital outflow event in the history of decentralized finance (DeFi). Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that the design of Aave V3 withstood the market test, reflecting the network's "resilience." However, independent data suggests Aave's survival was largely dependent on a $300 million emergency rescue, which included a 25,000 ETH guarantee from Aave DAO and a personal injection of 5,000 ETH (approximately $8.4 million) from Kulechov.

Kulechov attributed the vulnerability to third-party infrastructure rather than the core smart contracts. However, analysts point out that the incident exposed deficiencies in Aave's risk architecture and insurance mechanisms, leaving the platform with significant bad debt (approximately $123.7 million in wETH). To prevent future bridge failures from triggering systemic runs, Aave V4 will adopt a modular "hub-and-spoke" architecture, enabling automatic adjustment of localized risks and collateral freezing. (CoinDesk)