The community of the L2 network Arbitrum has supported the transfer of 30,765 ETH, valued at $70 million, to the DeFi United fund.

Source: snapshot.org.

In April, the project froze these funds at the hacker's address, who hacked the Kelp protocol, and moved them to an "interim frozen wallet." In early May, the Arbitrum DAO initiated a vote on transferring the funds to cover damages from the attack.

About 90.96% of participants voted in favor, while around 9% abstained. If approved, Arbitrum will become the largest donor to DeFi United. However, the final decision on the 30,765 ETH will be made by the court.

Source: defiunited.world.

Legal Uncertainty

On May 1, a U.S. court prohibited Arbitrum from unfreezing the stolen assets. Victims of North Korean terrorists are claiming the assets as compensation for incidents dating back to 2015.

Attorney Gabriel Shapiro previously noted that the DAO of the project cannot manage the ETH without a separate court hearing.

if you want some more info on the Arbitrum legal action, here's the actual court order (yes, there is a real court order, not just 'a letter from a lawyer') and a Claude summary

TLDR, the plaintiffs' lawyers did indeed effectuate a facially *legally binding* freeze on the…

— _gabrielShapir0 (@lex_node) May 2, 2026

The Aave team has already filed an emergency motion to lift the freeze on the assets, arguing that the court's reasoning is legally flawed.

According to platform representatives, even if the connection to the Lazarus Group is confirmed, temporary possession of the stolen coins does not make them the property of the perpetrator.

It is worth noting that the lawyers for the North Korean victims reclassified the Kelp hack as credit fraud.