Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers

Following the theft of $290 million in the KelpDAO exploit, the hackers have initiated the process of laundering 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 transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million. According to ZachXBT, a portion of the stolen funds has started moving across different blockchains, with approximately $1.5 million being transferred 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 employed protocols like Thorchain for laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools at this stage suggests that the attacker is likely preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. As one of the largest DeFi breaches in recent months, the KelpDAO exploit has sparked widespread negative sentiment and raised concerns about potential contagion effects on other blockchains. In response, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.