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2.1/10
Decentralised Exchanges
Company file: Balancer, owners, incidents →
Balancer
Do not open new positions on Balancer. On 3 Nov 2025 a rounding flaw in v2 Composable Stable Pools let an attacker take more than $128M; about $8M was rescued, about $19.7M was handled by StakeWise, and the treasury paid nothing towards the rest. Balancer Labs shut down on 23 Mar 2026, legacy v1 pools were drained of about $1.39M on 31 Aug 2026, and the BIP-928 wind-down vote (25–29 Sep 2026) would put pools into withdrawals-only on 30 Oct 2026. If you still have liquidity here, remove it now rather than on the deadline.
Best for: Nobody opening a new position — existing LPs should plan their exit
Company file: Balancer, owners, incidents →How this score was reached
2.1 is the weighted average of the five pillar findings below, minus one published deduction. We would not put our own funds here on the current evidence.
- Custody & Security30%
- 3.0
- Cost & Fee Transparency20%
- 7.5
- Regulation & Legal Standing5%
- 4.5
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 3.0
- Access & Support15%
- 4.0
Audited repeatedly, and still drained: more than $128M left v2 Composable Stable Pools in about an hour on 3 Nov 2025 through one-directional rounding that no audit scope covered. Recovery is partial and in kind — about $8M rescued and returned pool by pool, less a 10% whitehat bounty, and about $19.7M handled by StakeWise; no treasury-funded reimbursement. Immutable v1 pools, which cannot be paused, lost about $1.39M on 31 Aug 2026. If BIP-928 passes, bug-bounty coverage ends on 30 Oct 2026.
Pool-level swap fees remain set on-chain and visible before entry. The cost that matters now is exit: withdrawals stay open, but if BIP-928 passes, pools go withdrawals-only on 30 Oct 2026 and v3 pools kept open by partners are paused with the v3 Vault on 30 Nov 2026.
Unlicensed. Balancer Labs, the company that built the protocol, closed on 23 Mar 2026, citing legal exposure from the exploit. What remains is a DAO voting on its own wind-down: BIP-928, open 25–29 Sep 2026, had about 12.2M BAL for and none against on 27 Sep, against a 5M quorum.
About $59M total value locked on 27 Sep 2026 (v2 about $30M, v3 about $22M) and about $292M of volume in the previous 30 days — a fraction of the leaders, and shrinking towards a scheduled shutdown.
Builder documentation is still public, but the company that maintained the interface and code has closed, and if BIP-928 passes the legacy contracts will be left running with no maintainers.
Deductions applied
- −2.0Unrecovered user-fund loss. Users lost funds in the last 24 months and were not made whole. Applies once, regardless of cause.
Strengths
- Withdrawals remain open; exiting does not depend on the wind-down vote
- Rescued v2 funds are claimable by LPs of the affected pools, with the claim window extended to 12 months (BIP-923)
- The wind-down, if passed, is scheduled and dated rather than abrupt
Against it
- More than $128M taken from v2 in Nov 2025, largely unrecovered and not reimbursed from the treasury
- Balancer Labs closed on 23 Mar 2026; the protocol is voting on its own wind-down
- Legacy v1 pools cannot be paused and were drained again on 31 Aug 2026
- Bug-bounty coverage ends on 30 Oct 2026 if BIP-928 passes
Do not open new positions
On 3 November 2025 a rounding flaw in Balancer v2 Composable Stable Pools let an attacker take more than $128M across several chains in about an hour. About $8M was rescued and returned to the affected pools’ LPs, less a 10% whitehat bounty, and StakeWise handled about $19.7M in osETH and osGNO. The treasury paid nothing towards the rest. That is an unrecovered loss inside our 24-month window, and the fund-loss penalty applies.
What followed ended the argument for using it. Balancer Labs, the company that built the protocol, closed on 23 March 2026. Legacy v1 pools, which are immutable and cannot be paused, were drained of about $1.39M on 31 August 2026. On 14 September 2026 BIP-928 proposed an orderly wind-down; the Snapshot vote runs 25–29 September 2026 and on 27 September had about 12.2M BAL for and none against. If it passes, pools move to withdrawals-only on 30 October 2026 and bug-bounty coverage ends that day.
How to exit
Remove your liquidity now rather than on the deadline: withdrawals are open today and stay open under withdrawals-only, but after 30 October 2026 the code keeps running with no bounty and no maintainers. v3 pools that partners asked to keep open are paused with the v3 Vault on 30 November 2026. If you were an LP in a v2 pool hit on 3 November 2025, check the BIP-892 claim for your pool’s share of rescued funds; the claim window was extended to 12 months under BIP-923.
Frequently asked questions
Should I still use Balancer?+
No. Do not open new positions. The protocol lost more than $128M in November 2025, most of it unrecovered, its development company closed in March 2026, and a DAO vote closing 29 September 2026 would put pools into withdrawals-only on 30 October 2026.
How do I get my money out of Balancer?+
Withdraw your liquidity from each pool you are in, now. Withdrawals remain possible, and under the BIP-928 plan remain possible after 30 October 2026, but bug-bounty coverage ends that day. v3 pools kept open by partners are paused with the v3 Vault on 30 November 2026. LPs of v2 pools drained on 3 November 2025 should also check the BIP-892 claim for rescued funds, open for 12 months under BIP-923.
Has Balancer been exploited?+
Several times. Most seriously on 3 November 2025, when more than $128M was taken from v2 Composable Stable Pools; about $8M was rescued, about $19.7M was handled by StakeWise, and the treasury did not cover the rest. Legacy v1 pools lost about $1.39M on 31 August 2026. Earlier, a Boosted Pools exploit in August 2023 and a front-end DNS attack in September 2023 were refunded only in part.
Assessed by
By James Park
NFT & Web3 Gaming Analyst · September 27, 2026
◆ Disclosure
CoinRadar Daily is a non-commercial project. We have no commercial relationship with Balancer, earn nothing from any link on this page, and carry no advertising or sponsorship anywhere on the site. Findings rest on public sources; we did not open an account or transact.
Rubric v2.0How we score →
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- 05Balancer — you are hereNobody opening a new position — existing LPs should plan their exit2.1
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