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 revealed that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has started to be transferred across different chains, 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 this initial 'layering' phase suggests that the attacker is preparing to further distribute the funds across various platforms.
As one of the most significant decentralized finance breaches in recent months, the KelpDAO exploit has sparked widespread negative sentiment throughout the DeFi sector, fueling concerns of potential contagion to other blockchains. In response, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced the freezing of $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to transfer and launder the remaining funds.