Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers, Data Reveals

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 indicates that the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two transactions totaling $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. ZachXBT noted that a portion of the stolen funds has started to be transferred across different chains, 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 employed protocols like Thorchain for laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools is typically seen in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering, suggesting 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 hacks in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment across the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion effects on other blockchains. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the breach, a move that may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to transfer and launder the remaining funds.