Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers

Following the $290 million KelpDAO exploit, the perpetrators are now laundering their stolen cryptocurrency, as indicated by on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham. According to Arkham, the wallet controlling the exploit proceeds made two transactions worth $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. ZachXBT reported that some of the stolen funds have started moving 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 - a tactic previously employed by North Korean hacking group Lazarus. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools in the initial 'layering' stage of laundering suggests that the attacker may be preparing to further distribute the funds across various platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the largest in the decentralized finance sector in recent months, triggering a wave of negative sentiment and fears of contagion spreading to other blockchains. Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network, announced on Monday that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, potentially pressuring the exploiter to expedite the movement and laundering of the remaining funds.