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

Following the $290 million KelpDAO hack, the perpetrators are now laundering their stolen funds, as indicated by on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit proceeds made two transfers worth $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain. According to ZachXBT, a portion of the stolen funds has started moving across different chains, with approximately $1.5 million being transferred from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, and an additional $78,000 routed through the Umbra privacy protocol - a tactic previously employed by North Korea's Lazarus Group. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools in the initial 'layering' stage 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 DeFi incidents in recent months, triggering negative sentiment and contagion fears throughout the DeFi sector. Arbitrum, a layer 2 network, announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, which may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.