Millions in Stolen Crypto Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers, Data Reveals

According to on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham, the perpetrators of the $290 million KelpDAO heist have initiated the laundering process of their illicitly obtained funds. Arkham's data indicates that the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two significant transfers, totaling $117 million and $58 million, on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. Furthermore, ZachXBT discovered that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has begun to be transferred across different blockchains, with approximately $1.5 million being bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, and an additional $78,000 routed through the Umbra privacy protocol - a tactic previously employed by North Korean hacking group Lazarus. The use of cross-chain transactions and privacy tools in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering suggests that the attacker is preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant decentralized finance hacks in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment throughout the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion spreading to other blockchains. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the breach, a move that may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to transfer and launder the remaining funds.