Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers

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. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit proceeds made two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million. ZachXBT noted that a portion of the stolen funds has started to be transferred across different blockchains, with approximately $1.5 million being bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, accompanied by an additional $78,000 routed through the Umbra privacy protocol. Notably, North Korean hacking group Lazarus has previously utilized Thorchain for laundering purposes. The employment of cross-chain routing and privacy tools typically occurs during the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering, suggesting that the attacker may be preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant DeFi incidents in recent months, sparking widespread negative sentiment and concerns about potential contagion across the DeFi sector. In response, Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network, announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that may pressure the exploiter to expedite the transfer and laundering of the remaining funds.