NY Court Freezes Arbitrum DAO's $73M ETH as Gerstein Harrow Blocks Kelp Recovery for NK Creditors

A New York court has frozen 30,766 ETH (~$73M) controlled by Arbitrum DAO via a May 1 restraining order from Gerstein Harrow LLP, representing clients with $877M in North Korea terrorism judgments, halting a DAO proposal to transfer the funds to DeFi United's $311M recovery pool. The ETH was seized by Arbitrum's Security Council on April 20 following the April 18 Kelp DAO $292M exploit attributed to Lazarus Group, with the DAO vote (99% support from 16.9M ARB, ending May 7) now stalled amid competing claims. This clash sets legal precedent risks for DAO governance and on-chain recoveries, escalating jurisdictional tensions in DeFi.