The hackers that stole $290 million in the KelpDAO exploit are beginning to launder their ill-gotten gains, according to onchain sleuth ZachXBT and data from Arkham.
Arkham shows that the wallet in control of the proceeds of the exploit sent two transfers of $117 million and $58 million on the Ethereum blockchain during European hours on Tuesday.
ZachXBT reported that a portion of the stolen funds has already begun moving across chains. Roughly $1.5 million was bridged from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, alongside an additional $78,000 routed through the privacy protocol Umbra. North Korean hackers Lazarus Group have previously used protocols like Thorchain to launder funds.
Cross-chain routing and privacy tools are commonly used in the early ‘layering’ stage of laundering, suggesting the attacker may be preparing to further disperse the funds across multiple venues.
The KelpDAO exploit is one of the largest decentralized finance breaches in recent months, spurring a wave of negative sentiment across the DeFi sector and fears over contagion will spread to other blockchains.
Layer 2 network Arbitrum said Monday it had frozen $71 million in ether linked to the hack, a move that could pressure the exploiter to accelerate efforts to move and launder the remaining funds.