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 laundering process of their illicit proceeds. On Tuesday, during European hours, the controlling wallet of the exploit proceeds executed two transactions totaling $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen funds is being transferred across multiple blockchains, with approximately $1.5 million being bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, accompanied by an additional $78,000 routed through the Umbra privacy protocol - a tactic previously employed by North Korean hacking group Lazarus. The utilization of cross-chain transactions and privacy tools in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering suggests that the attacker is preparing to further disseminate the funds across various platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant decentralized finance security incidents in recent months, triggering widespread negative sentiment and concerns of potential contagion throughout the DeFi sector. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced the freezing of $71 million in ether linked to the incident, potentially pressuring the exploiter to expedite the movement and laundering of the remaining funds.