On September 29, BAL token holders overwhelmingly supported a phased shutdown of the Balancer protocol, with 99.2% of votes in favor of BIP-928, totaling approximately 17.2 million BAL.
BAL holders approved an orderly wind-down.
— Balancer (@Balancer) September 29, 2026
BIP-928 passed and BIP-929, the fork proposal, did not. Pools keep working as usual until October 30th, and withdrawals stay open the whole way through.
Here's the timeline and what it means for LPs and BAL holders.
Balancer will continue operating normally until October 30, during which withdrawals will remain available. After this date, pools that can be paused will transition to a withdrawal-only mode. Additionally, the rewards program for identifying vulnerabilities will conclude on the same day.
Partners can request an extension for specific v3 pools until October 16, allowing those pools to operate until November 30, when the v3 Vault is expected to be suspended.
Since Balancer's contracts are non-custodial, users will retain the ability to withdraw their assets even after active support for the protocol ceases.
The first phase of treasury distribution is set to begin in late May 2027. Holders will have the option to burn BAL in exchange for a proportional share of the remaining assets.
At the time the proposal was drafted, the treasury was valued at a minimum of $9 million. Marcus Hart, the initiative's author and former CEO of Balancer Labs, later estimated a payout of about $0.16 per BAL. The final amount will be determined and audited prior to the distribution.
The proponents of BIP-928 cited a lack of sustainable revenue as the reason for the closure. In August, Balancer generated approximately $30,000 in protocol revenue, a significant drop from $97,000 in June. Although the treasury is not yet depleted, ongoing operations would incur new expenses without a guarantee of business recovery.
This vote follows the previous announcement of the protocol's winding down by Balancer Labs in March. The financial situation also worsened after a hack in November 2025, which resulted in a loss of around $128 million for the protocol.
Abracadabra's Closure Proposal
Simultaneously, a proposal has emerged within the Abracadabra ecosystem to gradually shut down its lending protocol and liquidate the Magic Internet Money (MIM) stablecoin. Voting on this initiative will conclude on September 30 at 17:24 UTC.
The rationale behind the proposal is a significant collateral deficit. MIM liabilities are estimated at approximately $21 million, while the remaining collateral stands at around $1.2 million, with only about $900,000 available for settlements. This means that the actual collateral amounts to less than $0.04 for each $1 MIM token.
If the proposal is approved, the remaining assets will be liquidated and converted to ETH, with the proceeds distributed proportionally among MIM holders. Based on current estimates, they could receive around $0.04 for each token.
Abracadabra has faced financial difficulties amid a series of major attacks. In January 2024, the protocol lost about $6.5 million, followed by another loss of $13 million in March 2025, and an additional $1.8 million in October of the same year.
However, the current volume of bad debt is not directly related to the damages from these incidents, as the proposal does not establish such a connection.
It's worth noting that earlier in September, three other crypto projects—Harmony, Router Protocol, and Orionx—also announced their closures.
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