Balancer proposed shutting down its DeFi protocol and distributing at least $9M in treasury assets to BAL holders who burn their tokens, six months after Balancer Labs closed.
DeFi & Governance News
Six months after its corporate entity shut down, Balancer has put forward a governance proposal to wind down its decentralized finance protocol entirely and return at least $9 million in treasury assets to holders of its native token, BAL.
Marcus Hardt, a treasury council member and former Balancer Labs chief executive, published the proposal on Sept. 14. It calls for halting all new business activity, sunsetting the protocol in phases, and closing the decentralized autonomous organization to the extent possible under law.
What the Proposal Would Do With the Treasury
Under the plan, a previously approved BAL buyback program would be canceled. In its place, remaining treasury assets would be distributed proportionally to BAL holders who choose to burn their tokens. The treasury holds at least $9 million in tokens, the proposal stated. Additional DAO wallets and positions would be consolidated into inventory and folded into the first redemption round. BAL held by the treasury itself would be excluded from the distribution, with a narrow exception for holders of tetuBAL, a liquid staking wrapper token.
Hardt acknowledged the protocol had tried to turn things around. Token holders approved a restructuring plan in April aimed at cutting costs, ending token emissions, simplifying the token model, and routing protocol revenue back to the DAO. He wrote that while certain new initiatives showed early signs of traction, none produced sustained revenue growth.
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A Phased Exit Running Into 2027
If token holders approve the proposal in a snapshot vote scheduled for Sept. 25 to Sept. 29, the wind-down process would begin quickly. Contributor notice periods would run through Oct. 31, and all pools would shift to withdrawals-only mode on Oct. 30. Balancer confirmed that nothing in the protocol will change until after the vote.
The first redemption window would open at the end of May 2027 and remain open for six months. During that period, BAL holders could burn their tokens in exchange for a proportional share of the treasury. A second distribution would follow within two months of that window's close, covering unspent wind-down funds, late receipts, and any shares that went unclaimed. A final sweep six months after that would distribute whatever remained.
The proposal follows the Nov. 3, 2025, exploit that drained approximately $128 million from Balancer v2 pools across multiple chains, an event that led Balancer Labs to cease operations earlier this year.
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