Omnichain protocol LayerZero has joined the DeFi United initiative, pledging a total of 10,000 ETH (approximately $23 million).

LayerZero Labs is pledging more than 10,000 ETH to @Aave-led DeFi United efforts. We are:

• Donating 5,000 ETH to DeFi United
• Depositing an additional 5,000 ETH to strengthen Aave markets liquidity
• Strategically deepening GHO liquidity https://t.co/LbxDT8mkCq

— LayerZero (@LayerZero_Core) April 28, 2026

Of the pledged amount, 5,000 ETH will go to the ecosystem recovery fund, while the other 5,000 ETH will be reserved for Aave.

LayerZero's team also announced plans to increase the liquidity of GHO, a stablecoin from the leading lending platform. TokenLogic has raised the borrowing limit for the "stablecoin" from $100 million to $125 million.

We raised the $GHO borrow cap on the @aave Ethereum Core V3 Market from 100M to 125M.

Enjoy a fixed 3.5% borrow rate. pic.twitter.com/nI7tAqYeqG

— TokenLogic (@Token_Logic) April 28, 2026

However, the donation has faced criticism from the community. Many pointed to LayerZero's response to the Kelp attack, suggesting that the configuration of DVN LayerZero Labs could have contributed to the hack.

Some labeled the contribution as too modest and criticized the developers for their slow response.

Only 5,000 ETH when you were the CAUSE of this exploit?

This might actually be criminal.

— LIMITLΞSS 🐺👑 (@goodguyaugust) April 28, 2026

"Only 5,000 ETH, considering you were the cause of the hack?" — wrote one user.

Others called for applications to be disconnected from LayerZero's infrastructure, deeming it unsafe.

"I sold all my ZRO tokens, even taking a 70% loss. I have lost faith in your project. You guys are just pretending," — noted a user named Rajmani.

DeFi United's Progress

Despite the backlash, LayerZero's donation is one of the largest contributions to DeFi United. As of April 29, the initiative has raised over 137,000 ETH (around $320 million), surpassing the $290 million loss from the hack.

Source: defiunited.world.

On April 28, ConsenSys and its founder Joseph Lubin joined the fundraising effort, contributing 30,000 ETH.

The DeFi platform Compound has promised to transfer up to 3,000 ETH, pending community approval.

Puffer Finance has also allocated treasury capital to support Aave.

DeFi is built on resilience.

Puffer has deployed treasury capital in support of @aave DeFi United.

As a security-first liquid staking protocol, we believe strong infrastructure and aligned incentives are what sustain DeFi through moments like this.

We believe DeFi is a core…

— Puffer Finance 🐡 (@puffer_finance) April 28, 2026

It is worth noting that Curve founder Mikhail Egorov has proposed a debt tokenization mechanism amid discussions on the implications of the Kelp hack.