A coalition that includes Vancouver’s LayerZero, Canadian Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin and former Top Hat CEO Mike Silagadze’s Ether.fi said it has secured enough donation pledges from its members to eliminate the bad debt left behind after hackers drained about US$300 million from crypto lending protocol Aave earlier this month. (The Logic)

Talking point: The Aave hack has sparked a crisis of faith among participants in decentralized finance (DeFi), which replicates elements of the traditional finance system using blockchain technology. The dream of DeFi is to make finance more secure and fair by eliminating the need for middlemen, since transactions execute automatically through software. But it’s been plagued by hackers exploiting security flaws throughout its history, leading some to question whether the risks are worth the rewards. The Solana Foundation’s Seraphim Czecker said on X that the hack “feels like DeFi’s Lehman moment”: a reference to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers bank that sparked the 2008 financial crisis.