preferred on
Point of Focus
- Balancer is considering a phased shutdown after monthly revenue plunged.
- The proposed wind-down follows a $128-million exploit in November 2025.
- If approved, eligible pools would become withdrawals-only on Oct. 30.
Balancer is considering shutting down after a failed restructuring and a sharp revenue collapse left the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol burning through its remaining treasury.
A governance proposal authored by Balancer Treasury Council member Marcus Hardt calls for winding down the protocol in phases.
Voters will also decide whether to eventually distribute Balancer’s treasury, currently worth at least $9 million, to BAL tokenholders.
The proposal remains under discussion
A snapshot governance vote is expected to run from Sept. 25 to Sept. 29.
Until then, Balancer said nothing changes for users, with pools and withdrawals continuing to operate normally.
A proposal to wind down Balancer and distribute the treasury to BAL holders is live on the forum, authored by Marcus Hardt. Discussion is open; a Snapshot vote is expected to happen from 25 to 29 September.
Nothing changes today: pools and withdrawals work as they do now. Any…
— Balancer (@Balancer) September 14, 2026
The potential shutdown follows a dramatic deterioration in Balancer’s finances.
Monthly revenue peaked at roughly $1 million in October 2025 before plunging following a November exploit that drained approximately $128 million from Balancer v2 pools.
Balancer revenue drops below $60,000
Balancer attempted to reverse its fortunes through a restructuring approved in April, cutting its budget, ending BAL emissions, and redirecting protocol fees to the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
The strategy also placed significant expectations on Balancer v3 to generate new growth.
However, despite the launch of products including AutoRange Pools, v3 failed to generate enough revenue to replace income from older v2 contracts.
Monthly revenue stood at just over $200,000 in April before falling below $60,000 in August. September is currently tracking even lower.
sad day for defi
balancer was one of the protocols that helped define what onchain finance could look like, and so much that came after was built on ideas they helped pioneer
thank you to the team for pushing the space forward when almost none of this was obvious yet https://t.co/KaB62h5cc2
— Siddarth (@siddarthpatil) September 15, 2026
Compared with the $1 million generated in October 2025, monthly revenue has fallen by more than 94%.
The proposal estimates Balancer’s total monthly spending at about $150,000, meaning expenses remain substantially higher than protocol revenue.
Hardt argued that continuing under the existing structure would simply deplete assets that could otherwise be returned to BAL holders.
“Continuing on the current path spends the treasury to arrive at the same place later,” he said in the proposal.
Balancer plans phased shutdown and treasury distribution
Under the proposed wind-down, eligible Balancer pools would switch to withdrawals-only mode on Oct. 30.
Pools operating through contracts that cannot be paused would continue running, although protocol fees would be reduced to zero where technically possible.
Contributor contracts would terminate on Oct. 31, while a smaller transition team would maintain the infrastructure required for withdrawals. Total wind-down spending would be capped at $400,000 through the final distribution.
Balancer is one of the finest examples of Protocols who actually taken Security as their primary thing. I know, the Exploit of Balancer is very critical and very sophisticated but seeing the protocol is balancer is winding down is such a blow to the entire community.
As far as… https://t.co/w2dJGfC9C3
— Preetam | QuillAudits 🥷 (@raopreetam_) September 15, 2026
Balancer’s DAO treasury is currently valued at at least $9 million. BAL tokens held by the treasury would generally be excluded from distributable assets, except for amounts owed to tetuBAL holders.
The first distribution round is scheduled for the end of May 2027. BAL holders would burn their tokens in exchange for a proportional share of treasury assets, with the claim period running until November.
An additional airdrop is planned for January 2028, followed by a final treasury sweep six months later.
The proposal would also cancel the BAL buyback program approved under BIP-919. Funds recovered from November’s $128-million exploit would remain reserved for affected liquidity providers and would not be included in distributions to BAL holders.
Share
Most read articles
