Balancer wind-down proposed as post-exploit revenue fails to recover

Balancer has proposed shutting down its decentralized exchange protocol and returning more than $9 million in remaining treasury assets to BAL holders after its post-exploit operating plan failed to generate enough revenue. Summary Balancer has proposed winding down the protocol after its post-exploit restructuring failed to generate enough revenue. The remaining treasury, currently worth more than $9 million, would be distributed to BAL holders through a phased process. Protocol revenue fell from $1.13 million in October 2025 to $371,000 in November following the $128 million exploit and reached $56,781 in August. Liquidity providers would have until Oct. 30 to prepare their exits before Balancer moves to minimal withdrawal infrastructure from Nov. 1. BAL holders are scheduled to vote on the wind-down proposal from Sept. 25 to Sept. 29. Balancer Labs CEO Marcus Hardt laid out the plan in a governance proposal published Monday, saying the protocol delivered the products promised under a leaner structure adopted earlier this year but did not bring in enough revenue to sustain operations. The proposal would begin a phased shutdown in October before reducing Balancer to the infrastructure needed to let users withdraw funds. BAL holders are scheduled to vote on the plan through a snapshot vote running from Sept. 25 to Sept. 29. Balancer wind-down follows failed revenue recovery Balancer Labs shut down in March as the organization cut costs following financial pressure tied to a major exploit in November 2025. Executives kept the underlying protocol running under a smaller operating structure in an attempt to make the business sustainable. At the time, Hardt said Balancer Labs had become a liability to the protocol because of its operating costs and legal exposure stemming from the exploit. The protocol had been spending heavily to attract liquidity while generating insufficient revenue to support those expenses. You might also like: CoinEx to shut down exchange after nearly nine years Six months later, Hardt said the cost side of that restructuring had worked, but revenue had not recovered enough to justify continuing. “What did not come was enough revenue. Most of the protocol’s revenue still comes from v2, and v3 revenue has not grown to replace it. The product worked. It did not sell enough,” Hardt wrote on X. https://t.co/RqULwVdjh5 — Marcus | Balancer (@Marcus_Balancer) September 14, 2026 Data from DefiLlama showed monthly protocol revenue dropping from $1.13 million in October 2025 to $371,000 in November, when Balancer suffered the exploit. Revenue continued falling during 2026 and reached $56,781 in August. Hardt said the November attack remained a problem for Balancer even though it targeted legacy v2 infrastructure rather than the newer v3 architecture. “The November 2025 exploit hit legacy v2 pools.