Balancer co-founder floats phased wind-down plan as v3 revenue fails to scale

Balancer Labs co-founder Marcus Hardt said on X that a proposal has been filed to wind down Balancer in stages, arguing the protocol lacks a viable, funded path to restore growth. Hardt pointed to a recent restructuring that, he said, met its cost-cutting goals: token emissions were halted, all protocol fees were routed to the DAO, the operating budget was cut by one-third, and the team was reduced from roughly 25 people to 12.5 full-time equivalents. Revenue, he added, has not kept pace. Most protocol income still comes from v2, while v3 has not grown enough to replace it. Prior security incidents continue to weigh on partners' willingness to adopt v3. Hardt said it would be unreasonable to keep drawing down the treasury under current conditions and noted he will not lead efforts to craft a plan for ongoing operations. The Balancer codebase will remain open source, enabling other teams to fork and continue development. The proposal has been posted to the governance forum, with the final decision left to token holders. It also outlines an in-kind treasury distribution to BAL holders on a pro-rata basis, valued at no less than $9 million at current estimates. Under the plan, the BIP919 buyback would be canceled and BIP687 would be superseded. Key dates include a contributor notice period ending Oct. 31, 2026, and pools shifting to withdraw-only on Oct. 30. The first distribution would start at the end of May 2027, requiring holders to burn BAL to claim treasury shares. A second distribution would follow as an airdrop to addresses that redeemed in the first round, within two months after the deadline, with a final liquidation planned six months later. A Snapshot vote is scheduled for Sept. 25–29.