Aave chief defends protocol resilience after bank run

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov defended the DeFi platform's resilience following an $8.45 billion deposit run triggered by a $292 million exploit of the KelpDAO bridge. Kulechov attributed the vulnerability to third-party dependencies rather than Aave's core smart contracts. However, data suggests Aave's survival relied on a $300 million emergency bailout, including contributions from the Aave DAO and Kulechov himself. Aave plans a V4 upgrade to a modular hub-and-spoke system to localize risk and prevent future contagion from bridge failures.