BAL Holders Approve Balancer Wind-Down, Payouts Set for May 2027

Balancer is winding down. More than 99% of roughly 17.2 million BAL votes cast backed BIP-928, a proposal that authorizes an orderly shutdown of the DeFi protocol, ends its bug bounty program and sends the remaining treasury to token holders starting in May 2027, according to Incrypted.

CEO Markus Hardt, formerly of Balancer Labs and the author of the wind-down plan, confirmed the outcome. According to Incrypted, he said the vote had closed and that the orderly wind-down described in BIP-928 is approved, with the project moving into execution.

The process begins with pausable pools switching to withdrawal-only mode on October 30, 2026, alongside the end of the bug bounty program for all pools. Partners have until October 16 to request that certain v3 pools stay active until November 30, after which the v3 Vault will be permanently paused and the protocol is expected to be fully shut down.

The decision followed weak revenue momentum. Most of Balancer's revenue still comes from v2, while v3 has not replaced it. Hardt said the protocol was spending about $150,000 per month against roughly $30,000 in revenue in August, per Incrypted. The plan also notes that a November 2025 exploit that drained more than $128 million complicated development, though the proposal's author stressed the hack was not the main reason for the wind-down.

Treasury assets will be distributed to BAL holders in proportion to their share across two main stages plus a final distribution. The first round opens in late May 2027, when holders burn BAL and receive a corresponding share of the treasury. Hardt's September 20 estimate put the distributable treasury at about $9.96 million against 63.07 million redeemable BAL, or roughly $0.1579 per token.

Hardt noted that figure is his own calculation and not audited. The final amount is to be determined and verified before payouts begin in May 2027. After the first round, any unused treasury assets and funds received later will go to addresses that participated in that round, with the final distribution scheduled six months afterward.