Maya Protocol Halts Network After $1.7 Million Exploit

Maya Protocol is a decentralized liquidity network that enables swaps of native assets across blockchains through MAYAChain, without relying on wrapped tokens or centralized intermediaries. Its pools hold assets including bitcoin, making software security critical: a flaw can expose deposited liquidity directly and undermine confidence in both the exchange infrastructure and CACAO, the protocol’s native token.

The attack disclosed on Aug. 19 exploited a chain of six software bugs and drained an estimated $1.7 million in bitcoin and other assets, with reports putting the stolen bitcoin portion at about $1.4 million. Pool value fell by roughly $11 million during the disruption, while CACAO plunged as much as 89%. Maya Protocol imposed a network-wide trading halt to contain the damage and said swaps would resume after vulnerabilities were patched.