Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Being Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers, Data Reveals

Following the KelpDAO exploit, in which $290 million was stolen, the perpetrators have initiated the laundering process of their illicitly obtained funds, as indicated by on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham. On Tuesday, during European hours, the wallet controlling the exploit proceeds made two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, totaling $117 million and $58 million. According to ZachXBT, a portion of the stolen funds has started to be transferred across different chains, with roughly $1.5 million being bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, and an additional $78,000 routed through the Umbra privacy protocol - a method previously employed by North Korean hacking group Lazarus. The use of cross-chain transactions and privacy tools in the initial 'layering' phase of money laundering suggests that the attacker may be 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 throughout the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion spreading to other blockchains. Furthermore, Arbitrum, a layer 2 network, announced on Monday 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.