News linked to both this project and an event.
According to on-chain analyst Yujin (@EmberCN), the hacker who stole approximately $98 million in assets from Balancer last November is today exchanging ETH for BTC via THORChain. So far, 7,000 ETH have been swapped for 204.7 BTC—valued at roughly $15.88 million—and the process continues. Additionally, it has been disclosed that this address currently holds 15,000 ETH on Ethereum, valued at approximately $34.65 million, and 204.7 BTC on Bitcoin.
According to on-chain analyst Yujin (@EmberCN), the KelpDAO hacker, over a period of approximately one and a half days, has converted nearly all 75,700 ETH (valued at roughly $175 million) on Ethereum into BTC—primarily via the cross-chain protocol THORChain. This money-laundering activity generated approximately $800 million in trading volume and $910,000 in platform fees for THORChain.
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, the KelpDAO hacker began laundering and transferring ETH yesterday afternoon, and by now should have laundered 34,500 ETH (worth $80 million).Most of this ETH was cross-chain swapped into BTC via THORChain, which consequently earned a significant amount in "toll fees":1. THORChain's trading volume surged to $360 million over the past 24 hours, compared to an average daily volume of only $20 million previously.2. THORChain's platform fee revenue reached $420,000 over the past 24 hours, whereas its daily fee income was only $5,000 before.
According to on-chain analyst Specter (@SpecterAnalyst), the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor began laundering stolen funds from KelpDAO at approximately 3 a.m. Beijing time today—just three hours after the Arbitrum Council froze 30.7 ETH (approximately $71 million). The attackers split the remaining funds across three wallets, holding roughly 25,000 ETH (~$57.6 million), 25,700 ETH (~$59.2 million), and 25,000 ETH (~$57.9 million), respectively. The third wallet immediately initiated laundering operations and now holds only about 3,800 ETH (~$8 million). The majority of the funds were bridged to the Bitcoin network via THORChain, with approximately 99% flowing through this protocol. As a result, THORChain’s daily trading volume surged to $211 million—more than ten times its 30-day average—and generated roughly $189,000 in fees. During this laundering process, the illicit proceeds were also commingled with funds stolen in the BTC Turk (2025) and Bybit (2025) hacks. To date, approximately 442 BTC (~$33 million) linked to these incidents have been traced on the Bitcoin network, and over 400 addresses have been utilized throughout the entire laundering operation.