Following recent attacks on the Drift and Kelp protocols, users have withdrawn over $15 billion from the DeFi sector. According to Andrew Moss from Jefferies, this could dampen Wall Street firms' interest in blockchain technologies, as reported by Bloomberg.

TVL of the DeFi sector. Source: DefiLlama.

In the past year, firms like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global Management have been developing products based on technologies similar to those hacked by the Lazarus Group, noted the expert.

At the end of March, the New York Stock Exchange partnered with Securitize to launch trading of tokenized stocks. Nasdaq is also working on a similar initiative.

According to RWA.xyz, the volume of the RWA sector has surged approximately 400% since 2025, exceeding $30 billion. Ark Invest believes this figure could reach $11 trillion in the next five years.

Source: RWA.xyz.

The damage from these hacks is unlikely to affect traditional markets, Moss stated. However, many Wall Street institutions may slow down their cryptocurrency adoption and reassess risks.

“This creates threats to any outlook, regardless of who is at fault. We do not expect financial companies to turn away from digital assets, but their tokenization initiatives in banks, asset management, fintech, and payment systems may temporarily slow down,” explained a Jefferies representative.

The Kelp hack, which resulted in a loss of $290 million, is the largest of the year and the second largest in recent weeks. On April 1, the Drift Protocol platform was attacked, losing $285 million. Cybersecurity experts linked both incidents to North Korean hackers.

Trust Crisis in DeFi

These recent cybercrimes have triggered a trust crisis among DeFi users. Following the Kelp exploit, investors began withdrawing funds en masse from the leading lending protocol Aave. In less than a week, asset outflows exceeded $16 billion.

The incident impacted more than just Aave. Analysts at CryptoQuant noted a decline in the supply of the stablecoin USDe from Ethena. In just three days, the supply plummeted by $800 million.

USDe supply fell $800M (-14%) in 3 days: one of its largest redemptions.

Liquidity is exiting fast, and pressure is spreading across DeFi. pic.twitter.com/ymRBzbckYo

— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) April 22, 2026

In light of this, industry leaders are seeking solutions. Curve Finance founder Mikhail Egorov urged developers to unite and establish unified security standards for DeFi.

So let me start. DeFi is the future of the World Financial System. That's my belief, and this is why we are here.

This amount of absolutely preventable hacks we see in DeFi (with root causes attributable to CENTRALIZED points of failure) is enormous recently. This damages out…

— Michael Egorov (@newmichwill) April 21, 2026

“Perhaps we need the Ethereum Foundation and Solana Foundation to involve all ecosystem projects in participation and implement principles, rules, and guidelines for safe development,” he wrote.

Hayden Adams, the creator of the Uniswap exchange, shares a similar view. He stated that the primary goal for the sector in the near term should be to eliminate central points of failure.

Removing central points of failure is the mission of DeFi.

It's the best approach to security and legal risk, and achieves the best user outcomes.

It's a bit easier for spot trading than other primitives, so I get the challenges.

But it's a good week to remember the mission.

— Hayden Adams 🦄 (@haydenzadams) April 21, 2026

On April 22, hackers attacked the liquid staking protocol Volo, withdrawing $3.5 million from WBTC and USDC pools.