Following the $290 million KelpDAO exploit, the perpetrators are now starting to launder their stolen funds, as indicated by on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham. According to Arkham, the controlling wallet of the exploit proceeds made two significant transfers of $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. ZachXBT has reported that some of the stolen funds are 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 suggests the attacker is in the 'layering' stage of laundering, possibly preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO exploit is one of the most significant breaches in the decentralized finance sector in recent months, prompting widespread negative sentiment and fears of contagion spreading to other blockchains. In response, Layer 2 network Arbitrum has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, which could prompt the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.