Balancer opens two governance proposals targeting tokenomics overhaul and protocol priorities

Balancer has opened two major governance proposals that together amount to a fundamental reset of its tokenomics and operating model, aimed at moving the protocol from incentive‑driven growth to a lean, revenue‑focused structure. The proposals, submitted by the Balancer Foundation to the DAO forum on March 23, 2026, seek to overhaul BAL’s economic design while simultaneously reprioritizing products, supported networks, and organizational structure to extend the project’s financial runway after a major exploit and deteriorating economics. On the tokenomics side, the plan (codified in BIP‑919 and related forum posts) calls for halting all BAL emissions, phasing out the veBAL vote‑escrow model and its fee‑sharing rights, and routing 100% of protocol fees to the DAO Treasury instead of splitting them across veBAL holders and incentive programs. The proposal also introduces a BAL buyback (and in the final design, buyback‑and‑burn) program funded from the treasury, offering exit liquidity to holders and targeting a smaller circulating supply, while increasing the fee share retained by LPs to encourage more organic liquidity. This marks a clear pivot away from heavy token incentives and “bribe” economics toward direct fee capture and long‑term sustainability for BAL holders and the DAO. On protocol priorities and operations, a companion proposal (BIP‑918 and related governance discussions) restructures Balancer’s organizational footprint and product scope. It winds down Balancer Labs in favor of a new operational company (Balancer OpCo Ltd), reduces headcount roughly in half and cuts the operating budget by about a third, and concentrates development on a narrower set of revenue‑generating products such as reCLAMM, Liquidity Bootstrapping Pools, stablecoin and liquid staking token pools, and core weighted pools on a limited set of EVM chains with meaningful fee income. Together, the proposals are designed to more than double Balancer’s operational runway and reposition the protocol in “survival mode,” a notable example of a DeFi blue‑chip moving aggressively to shed costs, simplify governance, and prioritize sustainable, fee‑driven economics after years of incentive‑led growth.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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