Balancer this month unveiled a plan to compensate users following a major exploit that drained more than $128 million from its V2 liquidity pools across multiple blockchains, marking one of the largest decentralized finance breaches of the year.
Key points to remember:
- Balancer plans to refund around $8 million to affected users after a $128 million exploit hit its V2 pools.
- In total, approximately $28 million was recovered through Whitehat actions and internal rescue efforts.
- The remaining $19.7 million will be repaid separately by StakeWise through its own governance process.
A proposal released Thursday by two community members sets out a framework for returning approximately $8 million in recovered assets to affected liquidity providers.
The funds come from a combination of whitehat interventions and internal recovery efforts carried out during and after the attack. Community feedback is now being sought before a final decision is made.
Balancer Recovers $28 Million After Exploit Forces Protocol Shutdown
The exploit affected pools on five different networks and forced Balancer to suspend parts of the protocol as security teams and external researchers rushed to protect vulnerable assets.
In total, approximately $28 million in stolen funds were ultimately recovered through coordinated rescue efforts involving independent security researchers, Balancer’s internal team, and third parties.
According to the proposal, the repayment plan will only cover the $8 million saved directly by Whitehats and Balancer’s internal operations.
The remaining $19.7 million, held in osETH and osGNO, will be refunded separately through the governance process of Ethereum liquid staking protocol StakeWise, which has committed to returning the funds to its affected users.
The framework follows Balancer DAO’s Safe Harbor Agreement, which outlines the terms for Whitehat recovery and compensation.
Bounties are issued in the same recovered assets and cannot be taken directly from user funds.
Whitehat participants are expected to receive a 10% bonus, capped at $1 million per trade, once they complete identity verification, compliance checks and other legal checks.
Whitehat ‘Anon #1’ Led Balancer Rescue With $2.7 Million Recovery On Polygon
The proposal identifies six white actors who collectively took in approximately $3.9 million across multiple networks.
A hacker, called “Anon #1,” made the largest recovery after securing $2.68 million in assets on Polygon, including WPOL, MaticX, TruMATIC, and stMatic tokens.
Balancer also coordinated internal rescue operations with security firm Certora, recovering an additional $4.1 million from metastable pools on Ethereum, Optimism and Arbitrum that were considered at risk but had not yet been mined.
To claim funds, affected users will need to digitally agree to the new terms and release Balancer Labs, its DAO and associated entities from any legal liability related to the incident.
A 180-day claims window is included, after which any unclaimed funds may be reallocated in future governance votes.
Crypto investors lost more than $2.2 billion to hacks, scams and breaches in the first half of 2025, largely due to wallet compromises and phishing attacks, according to CertiK’s latest security report.
Wallet breaches alone caused $1.7 billion in losses across just 34 incidents, while phishing scams accounted for more than $410 million across 132 attacks.
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