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 significant transfers of $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain. ZachXBT has reported that a portion of the stolen funds is being moved 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 Korea's Lazarus Group. The use of cross-chain routing and privacy tools in the early stages of laundering suggests that the attacker is preparing to further distribute the funds across multiple platforms. As one of the most substantial decentralized finance breaches in recent months, the KelpDAO exploit has sparked widespread negative sentiment across the DeFi sector, fueling fears of potential contagion spreading to other blockchains. In response, Layer 2 network Arbitrum has frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, potentially pressuring the exploiter to expedite the movement and laundering of the remaining funds.