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 illicit gains. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds executed two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million. Furthermore, ZachXBT revealed that a portion of the stolen funds has been transferred 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. Notably, North Korean hacking group Lazarus has previously utilized protocols like Thorchain for laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain transfers and privacy tools in the early stages of laundering suggests that the attacker may be preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant DeFi compromises in recent months, sparking widespread negative sentiment and concerns about potential contagion across the sector. In response, Layer 2 network Arbitrum has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, which may pressure the attacker to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.