Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers

Following the $290 million KelpDAO heist, the perpetrators have initiated the laundering process of their illicitly obtained funds, as revealed by on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham. On Tuesday, during European hours, Arkham detected two transactions totaling $117 million and $58 million from the exploit's controlling wallet on the Ethereum blockchain. ZachXBT noted that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has started moving across different blockchains, with approximately $1.5 million being transferred from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, and an additional $78,000 routed through the Umbra privacy protocol - a tactic previously employed by North Korea's Lazarus Group. The use of cross-chain transfers and privacy tools in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering suggests that the attacker is preparing to further distribute 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 and concerns about potential contagion across the DeFi sector. In response to the hack, Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network, announced the freezing of $71 million in ether linked to the breach, which may pressure the hacker to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.