Millions in Stolen Cryptocurrency Laundered by KelpDAO Hackers, Data Reveals

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. Arkham's data indicates that the wallet controlling the exploit's proceeds made two significant transfers, totaling $117 million and $58 million, on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has begun to be transferred across different chains, with approximately $1.5 million being bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, in addition to $78,000 being routed through the Umbra privacy protocol. Notably, North Korean hacking group Lazarus has previously employed protocols like Thorchain for 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 disperse the funds across multiple platforms. The KelpDAO breach is one of the most significant decentralized finance incidents in recent months, prompting a wave of negative sentiment across the DeFi sector and raising concerns about potential contagion effects on other blockchains. In response to the hack, Layer 2 network Arbitrum announced that it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the breach, a move that could potentially accelerate the hacker's efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.