Kelp DAO Cross-Chain Bridge Hack: $292M Stolen, $220M Laundered

Of the approximately $292 million stolen in the April Kelp DAO cross-chain bridge attack, all but the frozen $71 million in ETH—about $220 million—has been laundered, leaving only around $1.7 million in assets at the attacker’s original address. On-chain analysis shows the attacker used privacy tools such as THORChain, Wasabi, Tornado Cash, and Umbra to conduct multiple rounds of cross-chain and coin-mixing operations. The hacker split approximately 75,700 ETH (worth about $175 million at the time) across multiple new addresses and cross-chained them to the Bitcoin network via THORChain, causing THORChain’s daily trading volume to surge to $394 million. The only assets potentially recoverable are the approximately 30,800 ETH ($71 million) frozen by the Arbitrum Security Council, though these funds are now entangled in legal disputes.