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

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 illicitly obtained funds. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million. ZachXBT noted that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has already 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. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools, similar to those previously employed by North Korean hacking group Lazarus, suggests that the attacker is in the initial 'layering' phase of laundering, potentially preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant decentralized finance incidents in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and contagion fears within the DeFi sector. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced the freezing of $71 million in ether linked to the incident, which may pressure the exploiter to expedite the movement and laundering of the remaining funds.