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 illicitly obtained funds. Arkham's data reveals that the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two significant transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million, during European hours on Tuesday. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has started to be transferred across different blockchains, with approximately $1.5 million being bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, and an additional $78,000 routed through Umbra, a 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 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 across the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion to other blockchains. In response to the breach, Layer 2 network Arbitrum has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, which may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.