Balancer eyes wind-down after restructuring fails to revive revenue

Balancer has put forward a governance proposal to wind down the protocol after its restructuring failed to restore sustainable revenue. The plan, authored by Balancer Labs CEO Marcus Hardt and posted to the Balancer governance forum, would pause new business development, move pausable pools to withdrawal-only, and limit operations to the minimum necessary to support withdrawals from Nov. 1. Balancer Labs itself closed in March, with the team operating the protocol in a leaner configuration since then.

Hardt said the product work for the upgraded v3 architecture was completed but did not generate enough income to replace revenue from the legacy v2 pools. He attributed the shortfall in part to the lingering reputational impact of a November 2025 exploit that compromised composable stable pools on v2. According to DefiLlama, protocol revenue dropped from $1.13 million in October 2025 to $371,000 in November 2025 and continued declining into 2026, with August revenue at $56,781.

Under the wind-down proposal, liquidity providers would have until Oct. 30 to prepare exits, and pools that cannot be paused would remain live with protocol fees set to zero where contracts permit. From Nov. 1 the protocol would run only essential infrastructure, and a small team would oversee the DAO wind-down. The proposal allocates up to $400,000 to cover the shutdown process.

Remaining treasury assets, currently valued at more than $9 million, would be distributed pro rata to BAL holders in a phased process: the initial distribution is scheduled for May 2027, which would require holders to burn BAL in exchange for their share; subsequent distributions would return any unspent wind-down funds and unclaimed assets, followed by a final sweep six months later. BAL holders will decide the proposal in a snapshot vote set for Sept. 25–29; if rejected, the current operating framework would stay in place.