Maya Protocol Halts After Brutal $1.7M Exploit

Decentralized liquidity platform Maya Protocol is offline following a complex exploit that drained approximately $1.7 million in funds. Co founder Aaluxx confirmed the incident, which involved six chained bugs executed in a single transaction. The attacker tricked the network into issuing massive payouts and drained almost half of the total token supply.

The attack sent native token CACAO crashing from $0.115 down to $0.013 before a partial recovery to around $0.032. The hacker quickly converted the stolen assets into Bitcoin and Ethereum, leaving the project with severe balance sheet damage. The team immediately implemented a global halt on Discord and asked the attacker to return the funds in exchange for a bounty.

This incident marks the sixteenth crypto hack recorded in August alone, pushing a worrying trend higher for decentralized finance security in 2026. Data shows that total attacks are outpacing last year's frequency. Traders should watch for updates on the recovery bounty and whether arbitration traders can help restore pool balances.