A U.S. Law Firm Seeks to Halt Transfer of Frozen ETH in Kelp Attack, Claiming Over $870 Million in Damages

On May 4, U.S. law firm Gerstein Harrow LLP filed a motion for a restraining order in court, seeking to block the Arbitrum DAO from transferring frozen Ethereum assets tied to the Kelp attack. The firm stated its client has secured default judgments totaling roughly $877 million (including punitive damages and interest) in three cases against North Korea, claiming a right to the related assets. Previously, on April 18, the Kelp DAO was hacked, resulting in losses of approximately $292 million—losses linked to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. The Arbitrum Security Council subsequently froze around 30,766 Ether (valued at roughly $73 million at the time). The incident has sparked controversy. Some community members argue enforcing the restraining order would delay fund returns to affected users and shift North Korea-related liabilities to secondary victims. Earlier, Aave Labs proposed unfreezing the assets and directing them into a compensation fund to recover damaged assets. Notably, Gerstein Harrow has previously filed claims over assets stolen by North Korea-linked hackers and frozen by crypto platforms, including in the 2023 Heco Bridge incident. Industry analysts say the case could set a precedent for DAO asset disposition and cross-jurisdictional claim rights.