Audit log

Every state-changing event for Maya Protocol (MAYAChain): moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions are designed to carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key. Archive coverage is still being backfilled, so each decision below reports its own snapshot status rather than assuming one exists.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-08-19 12:04:17Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
   anchorpending

   chain

   ●—

   hash

   A8qSpjaot7ws…2od4iBHxcopysha256 → base58

   verifying row…

   canonical bytes (18012 B) ▸

   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"7a479b99-7618-46da-8526-cef7c896c96e","kind":"publish","page_slug":"maya-protocol-mayachain","published_at":"2026-08-19T12:04:17.014Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Maya Protocol (MAYAChain)","sections":[{"content":"Maya Protocol is a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol built on the Cosmos SDK. It is a self-described 'friendly fork' of THORChain, maintaining backward compatibility while introducing new features such as Liquidity Nodes and a two-token model. Development began in early 2021; blockchain genesis occurred in March 2023, with trading live by April 2023. The protocol enables native cross-chain swaps without pegged or wrapped assets and without bridges, allowing users to swap BTC, ETH, USDC, and other assets paired against CACAO. A second native token, MAYA, functions as a revenue-sharing token that receives 10% of all swap and transaction fees in the form of daily CACAO distributions. The total CACAO supply is capped at 100 million, with 90% distributed at launch via a Liquidity Auction and 10% reserved for an Impermanent Loss Protection treasury. Prior security audits were conducted by Halborn and Fable 5, though the vulnerabilities exploited in August 2026 reportedly went undetected by those audits.","heading":"Protocol Background","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Official Documentation","type":"official","url":"https://docs.mayaprotocol.com/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Why Maya is a Friendly Fork of THORChain — Maya Protocol Blog","type":"official","url":"https://www.mayaprotocol.com/blog-maya-academy/why-maya-is-a-friendly-fork-of-thorchain"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Native Assets (CACAO) — Official Docs","type":"official","url":"https://docs.mayaprotocol.com/introduction/readme/cacao"},{"credibility":2,"name":"What Is Maya Protocol? — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/education/defi/what-is-maya-protocol"}]},{"content":"On August 18, 2026 at approximately 17:30 UTC, an attacker exploited six chained software vulnerabilities in MAYAChain's codebase via a single transaction containing 23 messages. The attack was not the result of one discrete flaw but of six interacting weaknesses spanning trade accounts, outbound transaction handling, and liquidity pool calculations. According to post-incident technical analysis reported by CoinGabbar, the attack unfolded as follows: (1) A batched deposit transaction with many internal messages caused the system to overwrite tracking records tied to one transaction ID. (2) The corrupted tracking led the outbound-verification logic to misclassify a legitimate transfer as theft. (3) The false theft alarm triggered an uncapped slashing calculation that wildly inflated the CACAO balance of a low-liquidity pool — the Arbitrum Chainlink (ARB.LINK) pool. (4) When the compensatory funding transfer failed, the error was logged but never rolled back, leaving the inflated balance intact. (5) The artificially inflated pool state persisted on-chain. (6) The attacker then added minimal liquidity to the fattened pool, instantly acquiring 99.93% ownership, and withdrew approximately 48.87 million CACAO tokens from Maya's Asgard module, the vault that holds assets for cross-chain swaps. The attacker subsequently converted the CACAO into external assets. On-chain records confirmed that 20.83 BTC, worth approximately $1.34 million at the time of transfer, was sent to attacker-controlled addresses. Security firm PeckShield flagged the incident and traced the 20 BTC to one Bitcoin address. Total attacker value, including roughly $291,000 in CACAO and trade-account positions still held on-chain at the time of initial reporting, was estimated at approximately $1.7 million. The broader pool-value decline — including arbitrage losses and the CACAO price collapse — was reported by CoinDesk as approximately $10.9 million, though this figure encompasses market losses beyond directly stolen assets. The previously exploited bugs had reportedly not been caught by prior security audits conducted by Halborn and Fable 5. This was MAYAChain's first documented loss-of-funds incident since its mainnet launch in April 2023.","heading":"August 2026 Exploit — Six Chained Bugs","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit, CACAO Falls 89% — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/maya-protocol-1-7m-exploit-network-halt"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol exploit drains bitcoin and other assets as pool value drops $11 million — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-exploit-drains-bitcoin-and-other-assets-as-pool-value-drops-usd11-million"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hack: 6 Bugs Trigger $1.7M Exploit and 88% CACAO Crash — CoinGabbar","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/maya-protocol-hack-news-6-bugs-1-7m-defi-exploit-cacao-crash"},{"credibility":2,"name":"PeckShield: Maya Protocol Loses $1.7M, 20 BTC Traced to Wallet — Bitcoin.com News","type":"on_chain","url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/security/maya-protocol-exploit-1-7-million-peckshield/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol suffers $1.7 million exploit, halts network — Crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/maya-protocol-suffers-1-7-million-exploit-halts-network/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit in First Major Breach Since 2023 — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-hit-by-1-7m-exploit-in-first-major-breach-since-2023/"}]},{"content":"CACAO, the primary settlement and gas token of the Maya Protocol ecosystem, collapsed approximately 88.7% within hours of the exploit, falling from approximately $0.115 to $0.013. A partial recovery followed, with CACAO climbing toward approximately $0.03 in the hours after the network halt was implemented. At the time of the incident, CACAO was already significantly below its all-time high of approximately $1.43. The magnitude of the price collapse reflected both direct selling pressure from the attacker liquidating fabricated tokens and broader market panic among liquidity providers. The pool value decline of approximately $10.9 million reported by CoinDesk incorporated losses beyond the directly stolen $1.7 million, including arbitrage extraction and mark-to-market losses on CACAO positions.","heading":"Token Price Impact","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit, CACAO Falls 89% — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/maya-protocol-1-7m-exploit-network-halt"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol exploit drains bitcoin and other assets as pool value drops $11 million — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-exploit-drains-bitcoin-and-other-assets-as-pool-value-drops-usd11-million"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Price: CACAO/USD — CoinGecko","type":"other","url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/maya-protocol"}]},{"content":"MAYAChain's automated security architecture includes a 720-block trading halt (approximately one hour) that triggers when anomalous activity is detected. This mechanism activated during the exploit, pausing deposits and withdrawals. According to reporting by CryptoTimes, MAYAChain's broader defenses include automated solvency checkers, node-level halt mechanisms, a TxOut throttler, and circuit breakers. These defenses did not fully contain the exploit before the attacker extracted funds; however, the automated halt did prevent the attack from continuing beyond the initial extraction window. The 720-block halt mechanism has been cited by the team in the past as a key differentiator from protocols that have suffered larger-scale drains due to delays in manual intervention. Co-founder Aalux (also identified in reporting as AaluxxMyth) stated publicly that the halt 'prevented further damage.'","heading":"Network Halt and Security Mechanisms","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit in First Major Breach Since 2023 — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-hit-by-1-7m-exploit-in-first-major-breach-since-2023/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"MAYAChain halts network after estimated $1.7M exploit — CoinTelegraph via TradingView","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:1cdc87a5a094b:0-mayachain-halts-network-after-estimated-1-7m-exploit/"}]},{"content":"Co-founder AaluxxMyth publicly acknowledged the incident on August 18–19, 2026, stating 'Sad news. Will work to fix and recover in full. We carry on.' The team implemented a global network halt to limit further losses and began work on a patch for the six identified vulnerabilities. The team offered the attacker a white-hat bug bounty in exchange for public disclosure of the vulnerability and return of stolen funds. The team also announced plans to freeze remaining CACAO holdings tied to the attacker's on-chain positions and to pursue recovery of the approximately 20 BTC sent to the attacker-controlled Bitcoin address. Co-founder Aalux signaled an accelerated launch timeline for Aztec Chain, described as a next-generation omnichain DeFi platform, with recovered capital directed to liquidity restoration. A full post-mortem was expected in the days following the incident. As of the initial reporting date (August 19, 2026), no restoration timeline for normal network operations had been confirmed and recovery of stolen funds had not been announced.","heading":"Team Response and Recovery Plan","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol suffers $1.7 million exploit, halts network — Crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/maya-protocol-suffers-1-7-million-exploit-halts-network/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hack: 6 Bugs Trigger $1.7M Exploit and 88% CACAO Crash — CoinGabbar","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/maya-protocol-hack-news-6-bugs-1-7m-defi-exploit-cacao-crash"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Halts Network After $1.7M Exploit Drains 20 BTC — CryptoAdventure","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptoadventure.com/maya-protocol-halts-network-after-1-7m-exploit-drains-20-btc/"}]},{"content":"Maya Protocol had undergone security audits by Halborn, a blockchain security firm, and Fable 5 prior to the August 2026 incident. According to reporting by CoinGabbar, the six vulnerabilities exploited in the August 2026 attack reportedly went undetected in both of these audits. The failure of the pre-existing audit coverage to surface the chained-bug attack vector highlights a recognized limitation of point-in-time code audits for complex multi-message transaction handling in cross-chain protocols. As of the date of this investigation, no regulatory enforcement action, no court filing, and no government investigation related to Maya Protocol has been identified. The incident is categorized as a software vulnerability exploit rather than misconduct by the protocol team.","heading":"Prior Audit Coverage and Residual Risk","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hack: 6 Bugs Trigger $1.7M Exploit and 88% CACAO Crash — CoinGabbar","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/maya-protocol-hack-news-6-bugs-1-7m-defi-exploit-cacao-crash"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Halborn Blockchain Security — Official","type":"official","url":"https://www.halborn.com/solutions/code-security-audit"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit, CACAO Falls 89% — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/maya-protocol-1-7m-exploit-network-halt"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol exploit drains bitcoin and other assets as pool value drops $11 million — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-exploit-drains-bitcoin-and-other-assets-as-pool-value-drops-usd11-million"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit in First Major Breach Since 2023 — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-hit-by-1-7m-exploit-in-first-major-breach-since-2023/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Hack: 6 Bugs Trigger $1.7M Exploit and 88% CACAO Crash — CoinGabbar","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/maya-protocol-hack-news-6-bugs-1-7m-defi-exploit-cacao-crash"},{"credibility":2,"name":"PeckShield: Maya Protocol Loses $1.7M, 20 BTC Traced to Wallet — Bitcoin.com News","type":"on_chain","url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/security/maya-protocol-exploit-1-7-million-peckshield/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol suffers $1.7 million exploit, halts network — Crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/maya-protocol-suffers-1-7-million-exploit-halts-network/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Halts Network After $1.7M Exploit Drains 20 BTC — CryptoAdventure","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptoadventure.com/maya-protocol-halts-network-after-1-7m-exploit-drains-20-btc/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"MAYAChain halts network after estimated $1.7M exploit — CoinTelegraph via TradingView","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:1cdc87a5a094b:0-mayachain-halts-network-after-estimated-1-7m-exploit/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Official Documentation","type":"official","url":"https://docs.mayaprotocol.com/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Maya Protocol Native Assets (CACAO) — Official Docs","type":"official","url":"https://docs.mayaprotocol.com/introduction/readme/cacao"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Why Maya is a Friendly Fork of THORChain — Maya Protocol Blog","type":"official","url":"https://www.mayaprotocol.com/blog-maya-academy/why-maya-is-a-friendly-fork-of-thorchain"},{"credibility":2,"name":"What Is Maya Protocol? — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/education/defi/what-is-maya-protocol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Maya Protocol Price: CACAO/USD — CoinGecko","type":"other","url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/maya-protocol"}],"summary":"Maya Protocol (MAYAChain) is a Cosmos SDK-based decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol and a friendly fork of THORChain, launched on mainnet in April 2023. Its native token CACAO serves as the settlement and gas asset across its liquidity pools. On August 18–19, 2026, the protocol suffered its first documented loss-of-funds incident when an attacker exploited six chained software bugs to fabricate approximately 49.45 million CACAO tokens and withdraw roughly $1.7 million in real assets including 20 BTC, causing an automated network halt and an approximately 89% collapse in CACAO's price.","timeline":[{"date":"2021-01-01","event":"Development of Maya Protocol began.","source":"Maya Protocol Official Documentation","source_url":"https://docs.mayaprotocol.com/"},{"date":"2023-03-07","event":"MAYAChain blockchain genesis; mainnet launch announced.","source":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit in First Major Breach Since 2023 — CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-hit-by-1-7m-exploit-in-first-major-breach-since-2023/"},{"date":"2023-04-01","event":"Trading went live on MAYAChain mainnet with BTC, ETH, USDC ERC20, and USDT ERC20 paired against CACAO.","source":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit in First Major Breach Since 2023 — CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-hit-by-1-7m-exploit-in-first-major-breach-since-2023/"},{"date":"2026-08-18","event":"Attacker submitted a single 23-message transaction to MAYAChain, triggering six chained bugs and fabricating approximately 49.45 million CACAO tokens. Exploit began at approximately 17:30 UTC.","source":"Maya Protocol Hit by $1.7M Exploit, CACAO Falls 89% — CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/maya-protocol-1-7m-exploit-network-halt"},{"date":"2026-08-18","event":"Attacker withdrew 48.87 million CACAO from Maya's Asgard vault and subsequently converted funds, sending 20.83 BTC (approximately $1.34 million) to an attacker-controlled Bitcoin address. MAYAChain automated 720-block trading halt activated.","source":"PeckShield: Maya Protocol Loses $1.7M, 20 BTC Traced to Wallet — Bitcoin.com News","source_url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/security/maya-protocol-exploit-1-7-million-peckshield/"},{"date":"2026-08-18","event":"CACAO token price collapsed approximately 88.7%, falling from $0.115 to $0.013.","source":"Maya Protocol Hack: 6 Bugs Trigger $1.7M Exploit and 88% CACAO Crash — CoinGabbar","source_url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/maya-protocol-hack-news-6-bugs-1-7m-defi-exploit-cacao-crash"},{"date":"2026-08-18","event":"Co-founder AaluxxMyth publicly acknowledged the exploit, pledged full recovery, and offered a white-hat bounty to the attacker.","source":"Maya Protocol suffers $1.7 million exploit, halts network — Crypto.news","source_url":"https://crypto.news/maya-protocol-suffers-1-7-million-exploit-halts-network/"},{"date":"2026-08-19","event":"PeckShield confirmed 20 BTC traced to attacker wallet. CoinTelegraph, CoinDesk, and multiple outlets reported technical details of the six-bug exploit chain. Full post-mortem pending.","source":"Maya Protocol exploit drains bitcoin and other assets as pool value drops $11 million — CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/08/19/maya-protocol-exploit-drains-bitcoin-and-other-assets-as-pool-value-drops-usd11-million"}]},"v":1}

   Verify offline (run on your own machine)

   python -m src.verify_decision 9d67cc50-2c3b-447c-a1c1-0c8c32e602bacopy