Crypto security concerns intensified after OpenZeppelin co-founder Manuel Aráoz said he advised friends and family to exit all decentralized finance positions, including exposure to major lending protocols.
Summary
- OpenZeppelin co-founder Manuel Aráoz said he advised friends and family to exit all DeFi positions, including exposure to Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound.
- DeFi protocols lost nearly $630 million to hacks in April, with Drift and Kelp DAO accounting for most of the monthly losses.
- The total value locked in the DeFi market has fallen by approximately 14% since mid-April, as exploitation incidents continued into May.
In an article published Tuesday on Even low-risk positions tied to established protocols such as Aave, MakerDAO and Compound were included in its warning.
Describing the current state of smart contract security, Aráoz said coding agents have become “superhuman at finding vulnerabilities,” while developers remain trapped in a system where “defenders must fix every bug while attackers only need a single exploit to steal funds.”
“I have privately advised friends and family to exit all DeFi positions, including low-risk blue chips like Aave, MakerDAO, and Compound,” he added.
Aráoz’s comments came as the crypto industry continues to face one of the most damaging periods for DeFi exploits since the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025.
DeFi exploits surpass $600 million in April
Data from DefiLlama showed that around $629.7 million was stolen from DeFi protocols in April alone, making it the worst month for crypto-related hacks in over a year. Two attacks account for most of the losses.
Among the largest incidents, Drift Protocol lost approximately $285 million after attackers allegedly used a social engineering campaign that lasted six months.
Kelp DAO suffered another $293 million exploit related to vulnerabilities in its cross-chain bridge infrastructure. Security researchers and blockchain investigators have widely linked both attacks to North Korean state-backed hacking groups.
DefiLlama recorded 27 DeFi exploitation incidents in April. At the same time, the total value locked across DeFi protocols fell about 14% from mid-April levels, from nearly $172 billion to around $148 billion.
The concentration of losses came largely from bridge-related weaknesses, privileged access failures, and operational errors rather than just isolated coding bugs.
Aside from the two largest breaches, several smaller attacks continued to hit the protocols throughout the month. As previously reported by crypto.news, Wasabi Protocol lost approximately $5.5 million across Ethereum, Base, Blast, and Berachain networks during an active exploit.
Move-to-money platform Sweat Economy also reported losses of around $3.46 million after attackers drained nearly 65% of its liquidity pool in less than 30 seconds. The project later said some of the stolen assets had been frozen in Mexico while recovery efforts continued.
Meanwhile, on the Sui blockchain, decentralized trading platform Aftermath Finance lost almost $1.1 million in USDC on its perpetual platform. Blockchain security firm Blockaid said the attacker made 11 transactions in about 36 minutes.
Smaller attacks continue in May
Although May did not produce losses comparable to those seen in April, security incidents continued in the DeFi sector.
Among the latest cases, Verus Network’s Ethereum bridge was mined for $11.6 million. Prediction market platform Polymarket also revealed a $573,200 breach last week that the company said could involve a compromised private key linked to an internal top-up wallet.
