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's proceeds made two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, valued at $117 million and $58 million, as reported by Arkham. ZachXBT noted that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has started to be transferred across different blockchains, 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 Group has previously employed similar protocols, such as Thorchain, for laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools at this stage suggests that the attacker is likely preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant decentralized finance incidents in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and contagion fears within the DeFi sector. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced the freezing of $71 million in ether linked to the breach, potentially pressuring the exploiter to accelerate their efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.