The DeFi community is currently experiencing a split in its interpretation of Marc Zeller’s recent statement made on X, where he urged, “If you have WETH on Aave V3 Core, withdraw now, ask questions later,” on Saturday, April 18.
This has led to two contrasting viewpoints: one seeing it as a legitimate warning and the other perceiving it as an act of sabotage.
Shortly after his post went live, over $6.6 billion was withdrawn from Aave. Additionally, borrowing rates for stablecoins surged to 15%, triggering a significant liquidity crisis.
Zeller’s warning carries additional weight given his background as the founder of the Aave-Chan Initiative (ACI), who had been publicly clashing with Aave Labs for months before announcing his exit in March. This context adds complexity to an already precarious situation.
In response to Zeller’s alarming message, one user on X commented that he should provide more information and context regarding such claims that could incite panic among users.
On the other hand, some supporters viewed this as a timely heads-up from someone well-versed in insider knowledge.
Was Zeller genuinely alerting others or simply escalating tensions?
In follow-up posts, Zeller reassured everyone that the situation was “under control” and announced an immediate halt to ACI’s Frontier $ETH staking program. He offered all $ETH held by validators to be made available for Aave’s DAO in order to safeguard WETH depositors. He remarked that while this action might not significantly help matters at hand, it felt like the right course of action at this time.
Spark’s MonetSupply did not hold back when discussing competitive strategies; Spark had discontinued using rsETH as collateral back in January and maintained elevated maximum borrowing rates within its $ETH market—a strategy he admitted wasn’t popular among eth-loopers but ultimately left SparkLend with sufficient liquidity while markets across mainnet and various layers were facing lockdowns due to liquidity issues.
Aave’s total locked value (TVL) has plummeted from over $26.3 billion on April 18 down to approximately $19.8 billion now. The price of its token AAVE has also seen a decline exceeding 18% within just 24 hours—currently trading around $92.2 at this moment.
What transpired with Aave and how severe is the impact?
The turmoil originated from KelpDAO—a liquid restaking protocol built atop Ethereum.
On April 18th , an attacker took advantage of vulnerabilities found within KelpDAO ’ s LayerZero-based cross-chain bridge . This allowed them manipulation capabilities over messaging layers resulting in unauthorized release of116 ,500 rs ETH tokens —approximately 18 %of total circulating supply valued near292 million dollars .
Accordingto EmberCN ,“the amount withdrawnfromAhavehasreached$6 .6billion ,withhalf($3 .3billion )beingstablecoins ” ; meanwhile Justin Sun alone withdrewaround65 ,584$ ETH worthabout154 million dollars .
Later reports indicatedthatSunwithdrew53 ,660$ ETH (125million)dollarsfromAhaveintheearlyhoursanddepositeditintoSpark.
Monetsupply.eth—head strategistatSpark,a directcompetitorofA ave—cautionedthatwith$ ETH ” utilizationatfullcapacity,borrowersusing$aclass =” ticker”href =” https :// cryptone ws.n et/m arket -cap/e thereum/”target = “_ blank “>$ E TH “ascollateralforstablecoinloanscannotunwindtheirpositionsdespiteincreasingborrowingratesforstablecoins.
Why didZell er departfromA ave?
Zelle r establishedACIasA ave ’ sprimarygovernanceandbusinessdevelopmentdelegate,makinghimon eofprotocol ’ sinfluentialvoicesover theyears.ButtherelationshipbetweenDAOfounderandleadershipofAv eLabsdeterioratedsignificantlyduringthefinalmonths2025.
ThiswasduetoagovernancedisputeoverAv eLabs’decisiontoredirectswapfeesontheirplatformawayfromDAOtreasuryintoaLabs-controlledwallet.Amovecriticsperceivedasprivatizationoftheprotocol.
ZellerallegedthatwalletaddresseslinkedtoLabshadmanipulatedmajorityvotestowardsthelabs’favor,anddeclaredtherewas“noroleforanindependentserviceproviderinanenvironmentwherethelargestbudgetrecipientholdsundisclosedvotingpowerandusesthatpoweronitsownproposals.”>
Aroundthisperiod,theACIbeganto wind downitsoperationsannouncingitsdeparture.HowevertheyarenotalonedueotherteamslikeBGDLabs—thedevelopersbehindAveV3corecodebase—andChaosLabshavingalsoannouncedtheirexit.
Aroundthisperiod,theACIbeganto wind downitsoperationsannouncingitsdeparture.HowevertheyarenotalonedueotherteamslikeBGDLabs—thedevelopersbehindAveV3corecodebase—andChaosLabshavingalsoannouncedtheirexit.