Balancer, one of DeFi’s original automated market makers, is considering shutting itself down and returning what is left of its treasury to token holders. A governance proposal posted by former Balancer Labs CEO Marcus Hardt on Monday calls for an orderly winddown: no new business development, a phased sunset of the protocol, and closure of the DAO to the extent legally possible.

Contributor notice, given on Aug. 27, runs through Oct. 31, according to the proposal. Pools that can be paused move to withdrawals only on Oct. 30, with recovery mode enabled where contracts require it and protocol fees set to zero on pools that cannot be paused. From Nov. 1, infrastructure drops to a simplified withdrawal interface and documentation, all funded by a wind down budget of $150,000 through May 2027, $30,000 after that, and a $220,000 reserve drawn only if needed.

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The treasury, at least $9 million at current token prices per manager kpk, would be distributed in kind and pro rata, Hardt proposed. Round one opens at the end of May 2027, after every existing veBAL lock has expired: holders burn BAL and claim their share over a six-month window closing in November 2027. A round-two airdrop around January 2028 sends unspent budget, later receipts and unredeemed shares to the addresses that redeemed in round one. A final sweep follows in July 2028. Anyone who does not redeem in round one gets nothing in round two. The BIP-919 buyback, capped at 35% of the treasury, is cancelled.

The revenue picture is the case for doing this now. Monthly burn runs about $150,000. Protocol revenue was roughly $30,000 in August, down from $97,000 in June, and most of it still comes from v2 rather than v3. Hardt wrote that “Balancer tried,” saying that efforts to restructure the protocol had not converted into sustained revenue growth. Continuing, he argued, spends money that belongs to token holders to reach the same place later.

This comes about six months after Balancer Labs, the protocol’s corporate entity, dissolved rather than absorb the legal fallout from the Nov. 3, 2025 exploit that drained roughly $128 million from v2 pools. Snapshot voting runs Sept. 25 to 29.

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

Balancer Proposes an Orderly Winddown and a Treasury Distribution to BAL Holders

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