The rejected fork proposal would have put MAXYZ in charge of a successor under a new name, seeded it with non-circulating BAL and delayed pool pauses until the second quarter of 2027. Its defeat leaves the earlier exit schedule in place.
The wind-down plan introduced Sept. 14 ends an attempted turnaround. BIP-928 says monthly operating costs were about $150,000, against roughly $30,000 in protocol revenue in August, down from $97,000 in June. It also cancels the earlier BIP-919 buyback, which was capped at 35% of the treasury measured at that vote.
Pool Exits Stay Open
Balancer still had about $58.5 million in total value locked on Sept. 29, according to DefiLlama.
Under the approved BIP-928 plan, pausable pools move to withdrawals-only on Oct. 30, except for requested v3 extensions through Nov. 30. Pools that cannot be paused keep operating, with protocol fees set to zero where contracts permit.
Partners must request extensions by Oct. 16. Bug bounty coverage ends Oct. 30 even for pools that stay live longer. Withdrawal guides and pool-specific treatment are due before that transition; exits remain available through the non-custodial contracts without depending on Balancer continuing to operate.
Burn BAL for Treasury Assets
A Sept. 20 update and accompanying inventory from proposal author Marcus put distributable non-BAL assets at approximately $9.96 million, using Sept. 18 balances and prices. That unaudited estimate excludes the separately held wind-down budget. The final distribution base will be measured and audited when the first redemption round opens, so it is not a fixed-dollar payout.
Starting at the end of May 2027, holders can burn BAL for a proportional share of the tokens the treasury holds. The claim window lasts six months, through the end of November 2027. The opening snapshot fixes eligibility and redeemable supply, excluding DAO-held BAL and permanently locked Tetu backing while adding the BAL allocated to tetuBAL holders.
Voters chose to give tetuBAL holders treasury BAL equal to 50% of their measured backing, rather than 100%. That option received 12.18 million BAL in voting power versus 4.91 million for full treatment; about 139,573 BAL voted against the wind-down. The tetuBAL holder set and backing measurement are fixed at the proposal’s posting block.
Existing veBAL locks unwind into BAL/WETH pool tokens, which holders must exit to obtain BAL. Holders using auraBAL or sdBAL must unwind on those protocols’ calendars before the redemption window closes.
Round two distributes unspent budget, later receipts and unclaimed shares to addresses that redeemed in round one, within two months of its close. A final sweep follows six months later. Holders who miss round one receive no share in round two. Funds recovered from attacks remain reserved for affected liquidity providers, outside the BAL-holder distribution.
The approved wind-down budget from Nov. 1 totals up to $400,000, including a $220,000 reserve drawn only if needed. The Treasury Council remains the signer, with the Foundation executing distributions and closing last. An implementation specification is due by the end of February 2027, and the claim contract must be audited before redemptions open.
The bigger picture
Balancer’s Shrinking Liquidity and Its Fee-First Reset
Balancer’s March reset proposal sought to replace token-subsidized liquidity with organic fee income. BIP-919 proposed stopping BAL emissions and cutting the protocol’s share of v3 swap fees from 50% to 25%, explicitly warning that incentive-dependent liquidity could leave. Preserving maximum TVL was not the same objective as making the protocol sustainable.
Total-protocol TVL fell 93.6% from Sept. 28, 2025, to Sept. 29, 2026, and 58.8% from March 30 to Sept. 29, according to The Defiant’s calculations using DefiLlama. That trajectory does not establish that the reset caused withdrawals: dollar-valued TVL reflects both asset prices and holdings. The later wind-down case rested on revenue failing to cover operating costs, not liquidity size alone.
