U.S. Court Clears Action: Aave Can Get Back $71 Million in ETH Stolen by North Korean Hackers



A U.S. judge has approved Aave to transfer the frozen $71 million in ETH back to its own wallet. This money was stolen by the North Korean Lazarus organization during the April rsETH attack. The court also clearly stated that the community vote and the person who makes the transfer do not need to bear legal responsibility.

The Arbitrum community previously voted in favor of repayment, and is now just waiting for the final on-chain vote to pass. Aave also pulled together protocols such as Golem and EtherFi to form a “DeFi Avengers Alliance,” raising $163 million to cover any backup needs.

Note: The plaintiff’s lawyer wants to include this money in the $877 million claim for retaliation against North Korea, and is still suing other DAOs and companies. This shows that U.S. courts are starting to treat DeFi governance participants as liable parties.

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Impact on AAVE

Short term: The money can be recovered, filling the hole from bad debts, and market confidence rebounds.

Mid term: Aave has taken the lead in running the process of “hacked → frozen by court → community vote → transferred back to assets,” turning it into an industry benchmark, making it easier to attract users.

Long term: People who participate in voting will need to be careful in the future and may be targeted by lawyers. Aave may need to prepare a legal fund or insurance.

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Impact on ETH

Benefits: It proves that even if funds are lost on Ethereum Layer 2 networks (Arbitrum), they can still be recovered—making institutions and governments more comfortable, which is positive for Ethereum ETFs and real-asset on-chain applications.

Risks: In the future, the U.S. government may more frequently demand freezing and transferring assets involving sanctioned countries such as North Korea. This will challenge Ethereum’s core claim that “no one can freeze funds,” and some users may shift to more privacy-focused chains.

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In one sentence: It’s a good thing that Aave gets the money back in the short term, but in the future governance will have to take responsibility; Ethereum has been left with a “judicial freezing” opening, which could cause long-term trouble.
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