Why DeFi isn't dead despite massive exploits and $13 billion investor exodus

A $292 million exploit and $13 billion TVL drop looks catastrophic on the surface, but the data tells a different story. What to know : KelpDAO's $292 million exploit triggered $13 billion in DeFi TVL losses, but much of that was leveraged positions unwinding — not real capital destruction. Spark TVL jumped from $1.8 billion to $2.9 billion over the weekend as users moved away from Aave. DeFi has survived larger hacks — Ronin, Wormhole, Poly Network — but the exploit will raise risk premiums for onchain systems whose attack surface now extends beyond smart contracts into infrastructure.