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 started to launder their stolen funds. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit proceeds made two transactions worth $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain. ZachXBT discovered that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has been moved across different blockchains, 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 disperse the funds further. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant DeFi incidents in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and contagion fears across the sector. In response, Arbitrum, a layer 2 network, has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, potentially forcing the exploiter to accelerate the movement and laundering of the remaining funds.