Balancer Floats Plan to Wind Down Protocol as Revenue Slides

Balancer is considering a full winddown of its protocol after a restructuring effort failed to restore revenues. The plan, written by Balancer Labs CEO Marcus Hardt, was posted Monday on the project's governance forum. If approved, the proposal would return a remaining treasury of more than $9 million to BAL tokenholders. Balancer Labs ceased operations in March, after which executives opted to keep the protocol running under a leaner structure. Hardt said the overhaul reduced costs and delivered products promised to tokenholders, but revenue fell short of expectations. Hardt noted that most protocol income still comes from v2, while v3 has not scaled enough to offset the decline. He also pointed to a $128 million exploit in November 2025 that hit legacy v2 composable stable pools, saying he underestimated how long the incident would weigh on adoption. DefiLlama data show monthly protocol revenue dropped to $371,000 in November from $1.13 million in October, then continued to deteriorate into 2026. Revenue in August was $56,781. Under the proposal, a phased shutdown would begin next month. New business development would stop, and liquidity providers would have until Oct. 30 to prepare to exit. Pools that can be paused would be moved to withdrawalonly status; pools that cannot be paused would continue operating. Where contracts permit, protocol fees would be set to zero. Starting Nov. 1, Balancer would run only the minimum infrastructure required to support withdrawals. The DAO would be wound down, with a small team overseeing the transition. The proposal earmarks up to $400,000 to fund the winddown process. BAL holders would receive the remaining treasury on a pro rata basis. The first distribution is slated for May 2027, with holders expected to burn their BAL to claim their share of treasury assets. A second distribution would return any unspent winddown budget and unclaimed assets from the first round, followed by a final sweep six months later. Hardt said postponing a winddown would erode the treasury without changing the end result. The plan requires BAL holder approval, with a Snapshot vote scheduled for Sept. 25–29. If rejected, Balancer's current operating framework would remain in place.