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Kava Lend's lending pool now holds almost no KAVA; Kava pauses its Axelar bridge

Kava says the incident is contained within Kava Lend and isn't an infinite mint. Records list about 55 million KAVA deposited; the pool holds almost none.

By Dispatch DeskPublished

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Kava Lend, the lending app that runs on the Kava chain, woke up to a problem on Saturday. On-chain, almost none of its KAVA is still there.

Kava Lend's on-chain records still list about 55 million KAVA as deposited, but the lending module now holds almost none. That's from Kava's own chain data on deposits and the lending module's balance, checked at 5:38 p.m. MST on Nov. 14.

The Block described Kava Lend as drained. The drained KAVA was worth about $3 million at the time, according to The Block.

What does Kava say happened?

At 4:28 a.m. MST, Kava said it was tracking "unexpected behavior originating from a dApp within the Kava ecosystem."

At 5:01 a.m. MST it added: "This is not an infinite mint. The event is isolated and contained within Kava Lend."

The same post said Kava was aware of on-chain activity involving KAVA tokens being bridged and sold on BNB Chain, which the post calls BSC. Kava said partner exchanges paused deposits and withdrawals as a precaution.

How did it work?

Kava hasn't said yet. The Block, citing on-chain data, said the attacker inflated the value of a little-used BUSD market and borrowed against it.

What happens next?

At 7:05 a.m. MST, Kava said it had paused its Axelar bridge and would publish an incident report. No incident report had been posted as of 5:50 p.m. MST.

Why this matters

For people using the chain, the visible effects so far are a paused bridge and paused exchange deposits and withdrawals. Kava says the problem stayed inside one app. The full account of how it happened is still to come.

Sources

Checked

  1. Kava post on unexpected behavior from a dApp, Nov. 14, 2026 · Kava on X · primary
  2. Kava post: not an infinite mint, contained within Kava Lend, Nov. 14, 2026 · Kava on X · primary
  3. Kava post on pausing the Axelar bridge, Nov. 14, 2026 · Kava on X · primary
  4. Kava Lend total deposited, pulled Nov. 14, 2026 · Kava chain API · data
  5. Kava Lend module KAVA balance, pulled Nov. 14, 2026 · Kava chain API · data
  6. Kava Lend exploit report, Nov. 14, 2026 · The Block · reporting

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