Altcoins News

Story: Kelp DAO Hacker Moves $104 Million in Stolen ETH Through THORchain

By Bruce Buterin

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How the Laundering Worked. THORchain operates differently from centralized exchanges like Coinbase or Binance. No KYC checks.

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What Kelp DAO Lost. Kelp DAO got hit hard. The protocol deals with liquid staking derivatives, which means users…

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Frozen Funds and What Comes Next. The $71 million frozen by Arbitrum sits in limbo. Arbitrum's security council can lock assets on…

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A hacker tied to the Kelp DAO breach just pushed around $104 million worth of stolen Ether through THORchain. The move came fast.

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Arbitrum's security council froze $71 million before the attacker could touch it, but the rest slipped through.

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The $104 million that got laundered is gone for now. Tracking it down will take serious blockchain forensics work, and even then, recovery isn't guaranteed.

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Arbitrum acted fast, though. Their security council locked down $71 million before the hacker could access it.

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Kelp DAO got hit hard. The protocol deals with liquid staking derivatives, which means users deposit ETH and get tokens representing their staked assets.

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The 75,700 ETH stolen from Kelp DAO represents one of the bigger hacks in recent months. Not the biggest—DeFi has seen worse—but big enough to hurt.

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See also: Kelp DAO Hack Triggers Finger-Pointing Over $290 Million Crypto Loss

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Kelp DAO hasn't said much publicly since the exploit. No detailed post-mortem. No timeline for recovery. Just silence.

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The crypto community is watching closely. Exploits like these shake confidence in DeFi protocols, especially ones handling large amounts of user funds.

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The $71 million frozen by Arbitrum sits in limbo. Arbitrum's security council can lock assets on its Layer 2 network when there's a clear security threat.

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But in situations like this, most users probably appreciate the intervention. Better to have $71 million locked down than watch it all disappear through THORchain.

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Recovering the $104 million that got laundered is a different story. Blockchain analytics firms can trace the funds to some extent, following the path through THORchain and beyond.

The Currency Analytics

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