Yeliz Akmaca 
Balancer is preparing to refund $8 million to liquidity providers following a $128 million hack in early November. The move is seen as crucial for restoring trust and stabilizing the DeFi ecosystem.
Refund Plan for Recovered Assets
The protocol will return the $8 million in recovered tokens, secured by whitehat teams and Balancer internal security, to affected users in the same token types. StakeWise separately handles $19.7 million in osETH and osGNO positions with an independent recovery timeline.
Whitehat actors, who helped secure funds ahead of the hacker, will receive 10% of the recovered assets as rewards, paid in the same token types. Some chose to waive their rewards, highlighting ethical hacking compliance under Balancer’s Safe Harbor Agreement.
Affected users will connect their wallets, verify balances via snapshot, and accept a short legal agreement. Approved claims are paid instantly. The claim window is expected to be open for 90–180 days, after which unclaimed funds may be redirected by DAO vote.
Market Impact and Behavioral Analysis
Following this, the attacker recently moved 6,999 ETH to a new wallet, triggering increased attention and scrutiny on on-chain analytics platforms. After the exploit, Balancer’s TVL dropped from $775 million to $258 million, and the BAL token lost roughly 30% of its value. Meanwhile, the announcement of the refund plan led to a 2% recovery in BAL price over the past 24 hours.
The root cause of the attack was minor rounding errors in some v2 pool balance calculations. This flaw created extremely unbalanced pools, enabling manipulation that drained millions of dollars.
DeFi Security Test
This refund initiative emphasizes transparency and strengthens investor confidence. The DAO expects the claim portal to go live in late December or early January, while StakeWise recovery follows its own schedule. The case underscores the importance of secure DeFi protocols for future investor trust.
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