Balancer Labs co-founder Marcus Hardt said on X that he has submitted a governance proposal to gradually wind down Balancer.
Hardt said Balancer had already completed a restructuring that included halting token emissions, routing all protocol fees to the DAO, cutting the operating budget by one-third, and reducing the team from about 25 people to 12.5 full-time equivalents. He said the restructuring went as planned on the cost side, but revenue did not meet expectations.
V3 revenue has not replaced v2
According to Hardt, most of Balancer’s protocol revenue still comes from v2, and v3 revenue has not grown to a level that can replace it. He also said earlier security incidents continue to affect partners’ willingness to adopt v3.
Hardt said he no longer sees a funded path that could change the situation, and that continuing to use treasury funds would not be reasonable. For that reason, he proposed a gradual shutdown of Balancer and said he will not lead any plan to keep the protocol operating.
Code will remain open-source
Hardt said Balancer’s code will remain open-source, and other teams would be able to fork it and continue development. The proposal has already been submitted to the governance forum, while the final decision will still be made by tokenholders.
Treasury distribution and voting schedule
According to the proposal, the treasury will be distributed in kind on a pro rata basis to BAL holders and is currently valued at at least $9 million. The BIP-919 buyback would be canceled, and BIP-687 would be replaced.
- The contributor notice period runs through Oct. 31, 2026.
- Pools will become withdrawal-only on Oct. 30.
- The first distribution round will begin at the end of May 2027, with holders burning BAL to receive a share of the treasury.
- The second round will take the form of an airdrop to addresses that redeemed in the first round, to be carried out within two months after the deadline.
- Final liquidation will take place six months later.
The Snapshot vote is scheduled for Sept. 25-29.