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

Following the theft of $290 million in the KelpDAO breach, the hackers are now initiating the laundering process of 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 significant transfers of $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain, according to Arkham. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen funds is being moved 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. Notably, North Korean hacking group Lazarus has previously utilized protocols like Thorchain for laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools is typical in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering, suggesting that the attacker may be preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is among the largest in the decentralized finance sector in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and fears of potential contagion spreading to other blockchains. In a related development, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that could pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.