Aave Opens Binding $71M ETH Vote as EF $49M Unstake Persists; Bitmine Buys 26K ETH at $2,300

Aave launched a binding Arbitrum vote on May 12 to transfer 30,765 ETH ($71M) recovered from the Kelp DAO hack to an Aave-controlled wallet, following a court order amid ongoing North Korea-linked legal restraints. The week opened with $103M U.S. ETH ETF outflows on May 7 and bearish whale deposits including BitForex founder's aggregate ~186k ETH ($428M) to Binance on May 8-9, offset by bullish flows: Mantle's 30k ETH ($68M) Aave credit facility, F2Pool's 7,461 ETH ($17M) DeFi deposit, BIT's 5k ETH ($11.7M) withdrawal, Galaxy/Sharplink's $125M DeFi fund, and Bitmine's 26,659 ETH purchase. Ethereum Foundation's May 11 unstaking of 21,271 ETH ($49M) from Lido raised selloff fears, but ETH stabilized near $2,300 amid low exchange reserves.