Security | March 24, 2026
Balancer Winds Down Labs After The Hack
The team says last year's $128 million exploit left the company with legal risk and no durable revenue, even as the protocol tries to keep going through a DAO and foundation structure.
Balancer Labs is shutting down the company behind Balancer after last year's $128 million exploit left it with legal exposure, a damaged reputation, and no real revenue base. Co-founder Fernando Martinelli said the corporate shell can no longer be justified, even if the protocol itself still has a path forward. According to Decrypt, Balancer will now lean on a DAO, foundation, and service-provider structure, with key staff potentially moving into a new operating arm if governance approves it.
The attack that triggered this break hit Balancer V2's Vault contract across six chains and drained funds in about half an hour. The protocol is not disappearing overnight. DefiLlama still shows Balancer V3 holding about $104 million in total value locked on March 24, 2026. What is being unwound is the company that sat above it. Code can keep running after a breach, but the people, treasury, and legal structure around it may not. Balancer now has to prove that distributed governance is strong enough to hold what the corporate entity could not.