Balancer Votes on Shutdown as Aave Teases Buyback Upgrade
The former top decentralized exchange (DEX) Balancer is voting on its own shutdown. The proposal, which will be snapshot-voted from September 25 to 29, would see the protocol gradually shut down and distribute its treasury assets of at least $9 million proportionally to holders who have burned their BAL tokens.
The decision comes after a significant attack incident in November 2025, where over $128 million was drained from v2 stable pools across multiple chains. Despite efforts to streamline the architecture, revenue has not recovered, with monthly protocol revenue dropping from $1.13 million before the attack to just $56,800 in August this year.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov also teased Aavenomics 3.0, which would upgrade the weekly committee-led buyback to an automated on-protocol mechanism funded jointly by protocol revenue and GHO stablecoin revenue.