The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Apr 2026

DeFi United is a coordinated, multi-protocol rescue fund created by Aave service providers and other ecosystem participants to remediate losses from the KelpDAO bridge exploit that produced ungrafted rsETH on-chain. Its primary purpose is to collect and forward contributions to a designated Ethereum address (defiunited.eth) to restore rsETH coverage and reduce claim shortfalls on Aave V3. The fund assembled $160 million in commitments, including large ETH pledges and protocol asset offers, and continues to accept donations while some contributions remain subject to governance votes. Capital committed to the fund includes direct ETH gifts, staked-asset offers (stETH), and a proposed structured credit facility from Mantle. The rescue effort targets an rsETH deficit that was initially estimated between roughly 68,900 and over 100,000 ETH and responds to modeled Aave losses ranging from about $123.7 million to $230.1 million depending on loss allocation. Participants and observers have characterized DeFi United as among the largest coordinated recovery actions seen in decentralized finance.