Balancer Proposes $9M Treasury Wind-Down After V3 Fails to Restore DeFi Revenue Growth

Key Takeaways:

• Marcus Hardt, CEO of Balancer, suggested an orderly winddown given the lack of revenue generation from the restructured V3 business.
• If the proposal is accepted, at least $9 million is in the DAO treasury, and could go to the BAL users.
• The plan would incrementally shift pools to withdrawals starting on October 30th, 2026, with the first treasury distribution slated for towards May 2027.

User Score

8.7

After its previous restructuring, Balancer is gearing up for a significant withdrawal from the DeFi ecosystem. The proposal would slowly close the entity and return to the BAL holders most of the treasury assets left.

Hardt said Balancer delivered much of the restructuring approved by tokenholders earlier this year. Emissions ended, costs were reduced, the team became smaller, and V3 products including Boosted Pools and AutoRange Pools continued to operate.

The problem was revenue. Most of Balancer’s income still comes from its legacy V2 system, while V3 has not generated enough revenue to replace it. Hardt said the team pursued new integrations and partnerships, but the interest did not translate into sustained commercial growth.

https://t.co/RqULwVdjh5

— Marcus | Balancer (@Marcus_Balancer) September 14, 2026

The November 2025 exploit also made adoption harder. The incident had an impact on legacy V2 pools and V3 is architected differently but not on top of the discussion with potential partners and potential customers, Hardt replied.

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The May 2017 price of $9 million in tokens is equivalent to at least $9 million being held in Treasuries. Wallets, positions and receivables will be booked before the first distribution with a snapshot functionality which will be audited and the final amount determined.

The scheme will eliminate the previously scheduled BIP-919 BAL buyback and give BIP-919 BAL holders an allotment of treasury assets.

If approved, Balancer would not suspend operations but would go into phased wind-down. Contributors would be notified by October 31, 2026 and future development of any new businesses would be suspended.

As of October 30, pools which are able to be paused would transition to withdrawals. Other pools will keep running where needed, and replace the protocol fee with a zero fee if that is permitted by the contracts. Starting November, Balancer would only be providing services to withdraw funds, document that and the eventual distribution to the treasury.

The first should be scheduled to happen at the end of May 2027. Eligible holders will then burn BAL and receive his/her share of treasury in the assets that the DAO owns.

The claim period is open until November 2027. A second distribution would then transfer unspent wind-down amounts (plus what pallet holders failed to redeem from the first distribution) to the addresses that redeemed the first distribution.

Six months after the second sweep there will be a final sweep. The wind-down budget is $400,000, with $150,000 of it apportioned to be used until May 2027, and $30,000 for the last phase, and $220,000 is the reserve that would only be used if there was any need to do so.

A vote on the proposal will be held from September 25 to 29, 2026 among BAL holders. If Balancer is rejected, it would continue to run under the current framework.

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