Verus-Ethereum Bridge Drained of $11.58M as Hacker Swaps Loot to 5,402 ETH

On May 18 the Verus-Ethereum cross-chain bridge suffered a suspected $11.58 million exploit, with the attacker converting 1,625 ETH and other assets into 5,402 ETH. This follows rapid recovery from the April 18 LayerZero-powered KelpDAO hack that drained 116,500 rsETH and created roughly $292 million in losses. Aave and Kelp burned the exploiter’s 117,132 rsETH on Arbitrum on May 12, refilled the first tranche on May 13, and unpaused withdrawals within 24 hours, stabilizing Aave TVL above $15 billion. Industry efforts raised over $327 million in restitution, though $71 million remains tied up in legal proceedings. The new incident renews cross-chain security concerns amid Certik warnings on AI-driven attacks.