Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers, Data Reveals

According to on-chain analyst ZachXBT and data from Arkham, the perpetrators behind the $290 million KelpDAO heist have initiated the laundering process of their illicit gains. Arkham's data indicates that the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds executed two significant transfers, totaling $117 million and $58 million, on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. ZachXBT noted that a portion of the stolen funds has begun to be transferred across different chains, 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 has previously employed protocols like Thorchain for money laundering purposes. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools in the early stages of 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 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 incident, potentially pressuring the exploiter to expedite the movement and laundering of the remaining funds.