Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers

According to ZachXBT, a blockchain investigator, 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 wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two significant transfers of $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain. Furthermore, ZachXBT discovered that a portion of the stolen funds has been 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, the 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 typically occurs during 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, sparking widespread negative sentiment throughout the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion spreading to other blockchains. In a related development, Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network, announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that could prompt the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.