Happy Monday, Defiers!

TL;DR:

Aave seeks to block lawsuit against Arbitrum DAO
DTCC to kick off tokenized securities pilot on July
Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade set to keep fees low
SODAX Bets DeFi's Next Users are AI Agents, Not People [SPONSORED]

Let’s dive in.

Markets are seeing a modest rally today, keeping up recent momentum, with BTC finally crossing over the $80,000 mark for the first time in three months. Total market cap rose 1.6% in the past 24 hours.

Over the weekend, Crypto Twitter buzzed with the news that a boutique law firm out of D.C. is suing the Arbitrum DAO over Kelp exploit-linked funds.

But the twist is that the firm doesn’t represent Kelp/LayerZero victims — rather it represents several plaintiffs that won past cases against the North Korean state. The lawsuit says that the over $70M in ETH that Arbitrum’s Security Council decided to freeze soon after the exploit occurred (to keep it out of the hands of what appears to North Korean state-backed hackers) should be considered the property of the DPRK; and, therefore, the logic goes, the past DPRK victims are entitled to these funds.

The claims, expressed via a restraining notice posted directly on Arbitrum’s governance forum, are brazen, to say the least (security expert and Arbitrum Security Council member Tay had much more colorful language on the move, and lots of receipts for context).

Until just hours ago, none of the major players in the Kelp fallout had officially responded. But then Aave showed up, yet again. Aave LLC filed an emergency motion in the Southern District of New York that seeks to vacate the restraining notice against Arbitrum DAO.

In a press release alongside the move, Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs, made the firm’s position clear: "These funds belong to the affected users they were stolen from, full stop."

Nexo is a digital wealth platform offering crypto yield up to 15% and crypto-backed credit lines from 1.9%. Join and get 30-day access to exclusive rates. Terms apply.

Your next user won't open a wallet.

Build for the agent era. SODAX at Consensus Miami.

The interface layer for AI-driven DeFi is already up.

Most DeFi infrastructure was built assuming a human is at the keyboard, reading slippage, selecting networks, signing transactions. AI agents skip all of it. They state goals and execute. The problem is the infrastructure wasn't designed for that handoff.

SODAX is. A live MCP server gives any compatible agent direct access to cross-network execution across 18+ networks. No per-network integration, no bridge logic. Amped Finance is already running production agents on the stack via Openclaw, managing yield and rebalancing capital without a human signing each transaction. The SDK will allow LLMs to read and integrate the full SODAX surface without manual hand-holding.

The agent era is already here. Find us at Consensus 2026 and at our Miami Heat: Cocktails & Connections event on May 5.

Ship now

	TICKER	VALUE	24H
	BTC
	ETH
	XRP
	BNB
	SOL

Forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe for daily insights and curated news from The Defiant team, Monday-Saturday. It’s free.

The $300M DeFi Bailout: Heroic or Unsustainable?

Was DeFi United a bailout or just voluntary market coordination? The Defiant's Camila Russo is joined by Dean Eigenmann (Markets Inc.), binji (Ethereum Foundation), and David Phelps (Confetti) to debate whether crypto bailouts are good for crypto, what this means for decentralization, and what DeFi must fix before it can scale to the mainstream.

Watch the full debate here:

Aave Asks Court to Vacate Restraining Notice Targeting Recovered Kelp DAO Assets

Aave LLC filed an emergency motion in the Southern District of New York on Monday seeking to vacate a restraining notice served on Arbitrum DAO that locks up roughly $71 million in recovered ETH tied to the April 18 Kelp DAO bridge exploit.

Why it matters: The restraining order was brought against the Arbitrum DAO on behalf of plaintiffs who hold unpaid judgments against North Korea from past cases, unrelated to Kelp.

DTCC Sets July Launch Window for Tokenized Securities Pilot

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) on Monday laid out a concrete timeline for its long-awaited tokenization service, saying it plans to facilitate initial trades of tokenized real-world assets in July before a broader launch in October.

Why it matters: The service will allow RWAs to be tokenized while preserving the same entitlements, protections, and rights as the underlying securities.

Glamsterdam Upgrade Set To Triple Ethereum's Execution Capacity

Ethereum core contributors gathered above the Arctic Circle last week for the Soldøgn Interop, where they aligned on a post-Glamsterdam gas limit floor of 200M, a 3.3x jump from the network's current 60M gas limit.

Why it matters: A threefold increase in L1 execution capacity, without a matching surge in demand, is likely to keep base fees low.