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Balancer is considering an orderly shutdown after an April restructuring failed to generate enough revenue to sustain the decentralized exchange. A governance proposal published Sept. 14 calls for ending business development, phasing out the protocol and distributing the remaining treasury to BAL holders.
The proposal values Balancer’s treasury at least $9 million. Tokenholders are scheduled to vote from Sept. 25 to Sept. 29, with shutdown measures beginning only if the proposal passes.
Protocol Revenue Fell From $97,000 to $30,000 in Two Months
Balancer cut costs earlier this year, reduced its operating team and redirected protocol revenue to the DAO treasury. The restructuring also ended token emissions and focused development on Balancer v3 products including Boosted Pools and AutoRange Pools.
Monthly protocol revenue nevertheless fell from about $97,000 in June to roughly $30,000 in August, while operating costs remained near $150,000 a month. Treasury management generates another roughly $25,000 monthly.
Most protocol revenue still comes from Balancer v2 rather than v3. The proposal says new products and partnerships attracted interest but did not generate enough recurring revenue to sustain operations.
November $128M Exploit Complicated Balancer’s Restructuring
Balancer’s November 2025 exploit also complicated the recovery effort. Attackers drained about $128 million from vulnerable v2 Composable Stable Pools across several networks.
Balancer v3 uses a different architecture and was not affected. The wind-down proposal does not attribute the shutdown solely to the exploit but says the incident damaged Balancer’s reputation and made attracting new business more difficult.
Balancer Labs, the company that originally developed the protocol, separately began winding down in March. Protocol operations continued through a smaller DAO-backed structure with about half the previous team.
Pools Could Move to Withdrawals-Only Mode on October 30
If BAL holders approve the proposal, pausable pools would move to withdrawals-only mode on Oct. 30. Recovery mode would be enabled where required, while protocol fees would be set to zero on pools that cannot be paused.
A simplified withdrawal interface and supporting infrastructure would remain available during the exit period. The proposal allocates up to $400,000 for the wind-down process and related reserves.
Treasury distributions would begin at the end of May 2027. BAL holders participating in the first round would burn their tokens in exchange for a proportional share of eligible treasury assets, with later distributions planned for remaining funds.
