According to on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham, the perpetrators of the $290 million KelpDAO heist have initiated the laundering process of their illicitly obtained funds. Arkham's data reveals that the wallet controlling the stolen assets made two significant transfers, totaling $117 million and $58 million, on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. Furthermore, ZachXBT reported that a portion of the stolen funds is being moved 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. Notably, North Korean hacking group Lazarus has previously employed similar protocols, such as Thorchain, for laundering purposes.
The use of cross-chain routing 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 decentralized finance incidents in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and concerns about potential contagion across the DeFi sector.
In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the breach, which may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.