Maya Protocol halts MAYAChain following $1.65 million exploit

The Maya Protocol halted its MAYAChain blockchain on August 18, 2026, following an exploit that resulted in the loss of approximately $1.65 million in assets. The attack targeted the mainnet, leading the team to freeze the network to prevent further damage. As a result of the halt, swaps and liquidity pool activities are suspended, and the protocol's CACAO token has experienced a value decline of nearly 89 percent.

Technical analysis by SigIntZero suggests the exploit was caused by a chain of six accounting and state-handling flaws within a single transaction. This allowed an attacker to trigger a compensation path that credited an inflated balance to a liquidity pool, enabling them to drain assets. While the attacker's primary Bitcoin holdings, totaling roughly 20.83 BTC, remained stationary as of August 21, the wider impact on liquidity pools is estimated to be as high as $10.9 million.

Founder AaluxxMyth has stated intentions to work toward a full recovery. However, the protocol has not yet released a final ledger, a formal compensation plan, or a definitive explanation regarding who will absorb the losses stemming from arbitrage and CACAO repricing.