Maya Protocol exploit drains bitcoin and other assets as pool value drops $11 million
MAYAChain, a cross-chain trading network, suffered an $11 million loss in pool value following an exploit triggered by a series of six technical bugs. The attacker manipulated the network's liquidity pool compensation mechanism to extract assets, causing the native CACAO token to crash and triggering widespread arbitrage that further drained the protocol's reserves.
Why it matters
This incident highlights the systemic risks inherent in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, where complex, automated code interactions can lead to catastrophic financial losses that extend beyond direct theft to include market-wide liquidity collapses.
Founder @AaluxxMyth said on X exploited for 20 BTC, worth about $1.4 million, plus roughly $300,000 of other assets. It stopped all trading to contain the damage and said it is working on a fix before swaps resume.
Sad news 😕 Will work to fix and recover in full. We carry on. @Maya_Protocol pic.twitter.com/EYK9BeWWLI
MAYAChain is a smaller cross-chain trading network that lets users swap assets such as bitcoin and ether without first sending them through a centralized exchange, and is part of the broader Maya ecosystem. Traders swap against pools of crypto deposited into the network, with its CACAO token used as the common asset connecting those markets.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in