Summary
Following the execution of [BIP-892], which established the initial 180-day (6-month) claim window and distribution framework for funds recovered from the November 3rd, 2025 Balancer v2 exploits, this proposal asks Balancer DAO governance to decide on the path forward for the next phase of claims and remaining recovered assets.
Governance is asked to vote on a window extension for the existing non-socialized, payment-in-kind claim window for an additional 6 months (total 12-month claim window) and hold on redistribution of other recovered assets.
Background & Context
In November 2025, Balancer v2 was subject to multi-network exploits. Whitehat interventions and internal emergency actions successfully rescued multi-million dollar positions across Mainnet, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon. Under [BIP-892], the DAO approved the 10% whitehat bounties and launched a 180-day claim window using a non-socialized, payment-in-kind model per pool.
At the time of writing, there is ~$920k still unclaimed, roughly 500 ETH today. Internally, we can verify that the top claimants are smartcontracts that are known and reachable, so during the extended window, the team will make an effort to redistribute the amount to the rightful victims.
Basically, the extended window provides a fair redemption mechanism via the existing Mekle contract (no action needed).
Recovery from Ethena and Shapeshift
A notable update is the rebate given by Ethena and Shapeshift from the hacker activity in those protocols, respectively 12,518 USDe + 133,905 USDC, that today are sitting with the DAO multisig but not on a Merkle contract.
This proposal also asks for us to wait for the extended window to close, and have a chance to add more funds to the recovery pool, before a decision on how to distribute these assets to the victims.
Specification
Extend existing claim window for another 6 months, maintaining the current [BIP-892] framework and current Merkle contract live (no action needed); revisit late 2026 the unclaimed assets disposition and other recoveries.