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 process of laundering their stolen funds. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two transfers totaling $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen funds is being moved 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 routing and privacy tools in the early stages of laundering suggests that the attacker is preparing to further disperse the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant DeFi incidents in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and fears of contagion across the DeFi sector. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the incident, potentially pressuring the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.