Following the Kava Lend attack, Bithumb suspended KAVA deposits and withdrawals. MEXC separately announced a halt to deposits only.
Crypto exchanges restricted KAVA transfers after the November 14 attack on Kava Lend. The Kava team acknowledged that tokens had been bridged to BNB Chain and sold. It said the incident was confined to its lending application and did not involve unlimited token minting.
Kava Lend is a DeFi application where users supply assets to earn interest and borrow against collateral. Its technical documentation says supplied assets are held in a shared protocol account and borrowing limits depend on collateral.
How 55.2 million KAVA was borrowed
Bitquery’s investigation says the attackers manipulated interest accounting in the little-used BUSD market. The index used to calculate growth in deposits rose roughly 243,000-fold. The protocol lent against inflated deposit balances that lacked matching assets.
According to The Block’s analysis of onchain data, about 55.2 million KAVA was borrowed in 127 transactions. The publication valued that amount at roughly $3.76 million using the pre-attack price of $0.068 per token.
Bitquery reports that two wallets repeated borrowing and liquidation transactions, with the protocol clearing debt without collecting enough collateral. The analysts say existing KAVA was taken from the pool. Their technical findings use November 14 chain records and have yet to be confirmed in the team’s final incident report.
The Block says about 49.2 million KAVA was bridged to BNB Chain through LayerZero. Sales brought in BNB and USDT worth roughly $2.09 million. The $3.76 million valuation and $2.09 million in proceeds must not be added as separate losses.
Transfers halted, trading continues
In its official notice, Bithumb set the suspension of KAVA deposits and withdrawals for November 14 at 19:35 KST, or 10:35 UTC. Trading remained available. The exchange warned that pending transfers could take longer to reach accounts and said transfers would resume after network stability checks.
In a separate warning, Bithumb said the security incident could bring sharp KAVA price swings. That warning does not announce the closure of trading pairs.
MEXC’s notice covers KAVA deposits only. It does not state whether withdrawals are restricted or give a reopening time.
| Platform | Announced restriction | Stated limit |
|---|---|---|
| Bithumb | KAVA deposits and withdrawals | Trading remains available |
| MEXC | KAVA deposits | Withdrawal status unspecified |
| Kava / Axelar | Bridge withdrawals | No reopening date |
Axelar bridge withdrawals also paused
TokenPost reported that Kava also paused asset withdrawals through its Axelar bridge as a precaution. The team said it would publish an incident report when ready. The Axelar measure concerns a different bridge from the LayerZero transfers described above.
The reviewed statements do not provide a final loss total from the Kava team, a repayment plan for affected users or a bridge reopening date. The onchain analysts’ estimates are not a compensation amount approved by the team.
