Balancer Fork's 6 Million BAL Grant Could Cut Holders' Redemption Value

A group of former Balancer contributors, MAXYZ, is seeking up to 6 million currently non-circulating BAL tokens to seed a successor protocol. The proposed grant would cut holders' redemption value if the granted tokens reach other eligible holders before Balancer's proposed wind-down redemption snapshot.

The fork proposal, posted on September 20 and expanded in a September 23 FAQ, suggests taking half the grant upfront and the rest up to the same cap after tetuBAL holders have been paid. MAXYZ says the fork's own treasury would be barred from redeeming against Balancer's treasury.

Marcus, an author of the wind-down proposal, estimates that an unaudited on-chain measurement taken September 18 found $9,959,416 in non-BAL assets available for distribution against 63,068,821 redeemable BAL. At the prices used then, that works out to about $0.1579 for each eligible BAL.

MAXYZ also proposes a contingent allocation from a future fork to the Balancer treasury, an asset with no realized value today. The fork's offered upside remains conditional, and holders' measurable claim is a share of a changing treasury until decisions are made on the grant and IP transfer.