BAL token holders approved an orderly wind-down of the Balancer decentralized-finance protocol, with the phased shutdown set to begin on Oct. 30, 2026. The plan will end the bug bounty program and distribute the remaining treasury to token holders beginning in May 2027 after the protocol failed to generate sufficient revenue momentum.

More than 99% of roughly 17.2 million BAL votes backed BIP-928, which provides for the protocol’s shutdown and treasury distribution.

Balancer begins orderly wind-down

Former Balancer Labs CEO Markus Hardt, who drafted the plan, said:

“The vote has now closed. […] With that, the orderly winddown described in BIP-928 is approved and we will move into execution.”

Under the approved plan, pausable pools will switch to withdrawal-only mode on Oct. 30, and the bug bounty program will end for all pools. Partners may request by Oct. 16 that certain v3 pools remain active until Nov. 30, after which the v3 Vault will be permanently paused.

The decision was driven by insufficient revenue momentum. Most of Balancer’s revenue continued to come from v2, while v3 revenue had failed to replace it. According to Hardt, the protocol was spending about $150,000 a month in August while generating roughly $30,000 in monthly revenue.

The plan also said the November 2025 exploit, in which more than $128 million was drained from Balancer, complicated the project’s development. Hardt stressed that the exploit was not the main reason for the wind-down.

Treasury distribution to begin in May 2027

The treasury is set to be distributed to BAL holders in proportion to their holdings through two main stages and a final distribution. The first round will begin in late May 2027, when holders will burn BAL in exchange for a corresponding share of the treasury assets.

Under Hardt’s Sept. 20 estimate, the distributable treasury totaled about $9.96 million and approximately 63.07 million BAL was eligible for redemption. That would amount to roughly $0.1579 per BAL.

Hardt said the calculation was his own and had not been audited. The final amount will be determined and verified before payouts open in May 2027.

After the first round, any unused treasury assets and funds received later will be distributed among addresses that participated in that round. A final distribution is scheduled for six months later.

Token holders reject proposed fork

BAL holders also rejected BIP-929, which proposed creating an official Balancer fork. About 30% of participants supported the proposal, while roughly 70% opposed it.

The proposal called for a new protocol focused on tokenized equities and other assets, along with the migration of liquidity, the team and intellectual property. The project could have received about 6 million non-convertible BAL as seed funding, while the Balancer treasury would have received 10% of the fork’s future token issuance if it launched.

The wind-down follows the November 2025 exploit, the downsizing of Balancer Labs’ corporate structure in March 2026 and the September proposal to shut down the protocol.

Source: Incrypted