Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers

Following the $290 million KelpDAO hack, the perpetrators are now initiating the laundering process of their stolen funds, as indicated by on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the stolen assets made two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, valued at $117 million and $58 million. According to ZachXBT, a portion of the stolen funds has started to be transferred across different blockchains. Approximately $1.5 million was transferred from Ethereum to Bitcoin using Thorchain, while an additional $78,000 was routed through the Umbra privacy protocol. Notably, North Korean hacking group Lazarus has previously utilized Thorchain for laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain transfers and privacy tools is typical during the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering, suggesting that the attackers may be preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant in the decentralized finance sector in recent months, prompting widespread negative sentiment and concerns about potential contagion effects on other blockchains. In response to the hack, Arbitrum, a layer 2 network, has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the breach, which may pressure the hackers to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.