sam_dev 
Evercrest, the entity behind KelpDAO, has filed a civil lawsuit in British Columbia, Canada, against LayerZero and its co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino. The lawsuit follows the exploitation of KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge in April 2026, resulting in the theft of approximately 116,500 rsETH, valued at around $292 million at the time.
Bryan Pellegrino confirmed that Evercrest has filed a notice of civil claim against LayerZero and himself in British Columbia. The LayerZero CEO stated that the allegations in the lawsuit are unfounded and that he will defend the case in Vancouver. Specific details about Evercrest’s allegations and legal demands have not yet been fully disclosed.
The dispute between the two parties stems from the attack on KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge in April 2026. rsETH is a liquid restaking token issued by KelpDAO, while the bridge facilitates the transfer of rsETH assets between blockchains, built on LayerZero’s cross-chain infrastructure.
In the incident, the attacker exploited a vulnerability in the cross-chain message verification mechanism, causing the system to process a forged message as a valid transaction. Approximately 116,500 rsETH were subsequently withdrawn from the bridge, with a total value of about $292 million at the time of the incident.
Following the hack, LayerZero and KelpDAO began debating responsibility for the incident. LayerZero argued that the issue was related to the security configuration chosen by KelpDAO for the rsETH bridge, particularly the use of a single DVN to verify cross-chain messages.
DVN, or Decentralized Verifier Network, is a component used by LayerZero to verify messages before they are transferred and executed on the target blockchain. Using multiple DVNs can add an independent layer of verification, while a configuration using only one DVN makes the system reliant on a single source of verification.
According to LayerZero’s argument, the attack was not a direct exploitation of the LayerZero protocol on a broad scale but related to the configuration and verification mechanism of the rsETH bridge. LayerZero also stated that the incident did not affect other applications using its infrastructure.
KelpDAO, on the other hand, has a different perspective on the parties’ responsibilities. The project claims that LayerZero was involved in the integration and review of the bridge’s configuration and argues that the risks associated with the verification configuration should have been more clearly warned.
Therefore, the focus of the dispute is not only on who carried out the attack but also on the responsibilities of the parties in designing, implementing, and controlling the security mechanisms of the rsETH bridge.
The incident has also drawn attention in the DeFi community due to the large scale of the damage and highlights the risks associated with cross-chain infrastructure. Blockchain bridges must rely on multiple layers of verification to ensure that a message from the source blockchain is truly valid before allowing assets to be issued or released on the target blockchain.
Evercrest’s decision to bring LayerZero and Bryan Pellegrino into a civil lawsuit in Canada has now moved the dispute between the two parties into a formal legal process. Pellegrino has denied the allegations and stated that he will defend the lawsuit in Vancouver.
