Balancer V2 Exploit Drains $128M, TVL Plunges 58%, V3 Safe
On November 3, 2025, the Balancer V2 Exploit targeted Composable Stable Pools across seven chains, draining $128 million in a rounding-error attack. Ethereum incurred the largest loss of $99 million, with additional drains on Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Sonic and Avalanche. Balancer paused affected pools within ten minutes, but DeFi TVL crashed 58%, tumbling from $443 million to $186 million. White-hat teams recovered $33 million: Berachain reclaimed $12.8 million via hard fork and StakeWise retrieved $20 million. This Balancer V2 Exploit underscores systemic DeFi security risks in modular protocols. Balancer V3 pools remained unaffected, reflecting an enhanced security model. The BAL token fell 6% post-exploit but stabilized as traders prepare for migration to V3. Balancer plans deeper audits and migration incentives to restore confidence. Traders should monitor official updates, migrate to V3 pools, and watch liquidity shifts.
Neutral
While the Balancer V2 exploit triggered a sharp 6% decline in the BAL token and a 58% TVL crash, swift pool suspensions and recovery efforts limited further losses. Balancer V3 pools remained unaffected, and plans for deeper audits and migration incentives have restored trader confidence. In the short term, price volatility is expected due to reallocated liquidity and migration flows. However, long-term market stability is likely as the ecosystem transitions to the more secure V3 architecture. Consequently, the overall impact on BAL is categorized as neutral.