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. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit proceeds made two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency 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. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools, commonly employed in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering, suggests that the attacker may be preparing to further disperse the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant DeFi security incidents in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment throughout the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion effects on other blockchains. On Monday, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that may pressure the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to transfer and launder the remaining funds.