Dissecting Cryptos Latest DeFI Hack #108

Dissecting Cryptos Latest DeFI Hack #108

From Crypto Options Unplugged by Deribit Exchange

April 22, 2026 · 1h 2m · Season 1 · Episode 108

About this episode

James Harris discusses the current state of the DeFi market and a recent exploit involving Kelp DAO and Aave.

In this episode, James Harris, CEO of Tesseract joins Imran and David to discuss the current state of the Defi market. James talks of his transition from a TradFi background at banks like Citigroup and Salomon Brothers to building regulated crypto infrastructure since 2017. Harris provides a technical breakdown of a recent DeFi exploit involving Kelp DAO and Aave, explaining how the attacker spoofed a bridge to drain assets and why hard-coded pegs often create systemic vulnerabilities. The conversation explores Tesseract’s role in providing regulated "yield-as-a-service" for major platforms like Robinhood and Bitstamp, alongside the emergence of on-chain "vaults" that offer real-time transparency for institutional asset management. Harris emphasizes that while he values the permissionless nature of DeFi, regulatory frameworks like MiCA are essential for protecting users and facilitating the tokenization of everything. Deribit FZE does not accept UAE retail clients for derivatives and does not accept US clients and clients from restricted countries.

People in this episode

Hosts: Imran, David

Guest: James Harris

Topics covered

  • DeFi market
  • crypto infrastructure
  • DeFi exploit
  • systemic vulnerabilities
  • yield-as-a-service
  • regulatory frameworks
  • institutional asset management

Keywords

  • DeFi
  • crypto
  • hack
  • Tesseract
  • yield-as-a-service
  • regulation
  • institutional assets

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tesseract, Citigroup, Salomon Brothers, Kelp DAO, Aave, Robinhood, Bitstamp, Deribit FZE, MiCA

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