Following a significant hack in November that resulted in over $128 million worth of assets being stolen, Balancer, a prominent DeFi protocol, has outlined a comprehensive plan to redistribute $8 million in recovered funds to affected users. The company’s proposal covers assets recovered through both interventions by white-hat security researchers and internal operations.
Details of the Recovery Operation and Distribution Plan
According to Balancer’s proposal dated November 28, approximately $28 million worth of assets were recovered following the attack. Of these funds, $19.7 million continues to be managed by the liquidity protocol StakeWise, utilizing osETH and osGNO tokens. The designated $8 million portion will be directly allocated to Balancer users, specifically liquidity providers (LPs) impacted by the attack.
The protocol has adopted an “unsocialized reimbursement” model, ensuring compensation is paid exclusively to LPs within the affected pools. Funds will be distributed proportionally based on the Balancer Pool Token (BPT) ownership at the time of the attack and will be paid in the same kind of tokens as those lost.
The breach occurred due to a security vulnerability in the composable stable pool structure of Balancer V2. This incident, which took place in early November, has been recorded as one of the largest attacks in recent times within the decentralized finance ecosystem.
Recognition and Rewards for Recovery Participants
Balancer’s plan also proposes a 10% reward for the six white-hat security researchers who played crucial roles in the recovery process. Rewards are capped at a maximum of $1 million per operation. An anonymous entity completed the most significant recovery, clawing back $2.68 million in assets on the Polygon network. Meanwhile, Bitfinding saved $963,832 on the Ethereum 
$2,262 mainnet, with smaller amounts reclaimed across the Base and Arbitrum networks.
Balancer mandates full identity verification and sanctions checks for all white-hat participants. However, Arbitrum-based rescuers chose to remain anonymous, forfeiting their claim to rewards.
Under the distribution plan, users must submit claims within 180 days. Unclaimed assets will revert to a “dormant fund” status and be subject to reallocation through a governance vote. This approach emphasizes both transparency and community-based governance principles.
