Decentralized exchange and liquidity protocol Balancer has reportedly fallen victim to a major security breach, with losses exceeding $128.6 million in digital assets.
This exploit highlights ongoing vulnerabilities in DeFi infrastructure, despite increasing regulatory scrutiny and enhanced security efforts across the sector.
SponsoredBalancer Exploit Drains Over $128.6 Million
According to data shared by Lookonchain on X (formerly Twitter), the attackers transferred roughly 6,587 WETH, worth around $24.46 million, 6,851 osETH, valued at nearly $26.86 million, and 4,260 wstETH, worth approximately $19.27 million, from Balancer to a new wallet.
The hackers didn’t stop there. Lookonchain reported that losses from the Balancer exploit surpassed $110 million within an hour of the news breaking.
“Absolutely insane — the total stolen funds from the Balancer exploit have now surged to $116.6 million,” Lookonchain added.
The attack appeared to target vaults on Balancer’s version 2 (V2) protocol. Further investigation revealed that multiple vaults across Sonic, Polygon, and Base networks were also affected and drained.
This indicated that the exploit spread across several chains rather than being confined to a single network. According to the latest update from PeckShield, total losses have reached $128.64 million.
SponsoredBalancer’s team has acknowledged the exploit and said that more details will be shared soon.
“We’re aware of a potential exploit impacting Balancer v2 pools. Our engineering and security teams are investigating with high priority. We’ll share verified updates and next steps as soon as we have more information,” the team stated.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time the network has faced such an incident. The protocol has experienced three major security breaches (hacks or exploits) over the past five years. In 2020, Balancer lost about $500,000.
In 2023, bad actors managed to steal around $238,000 worth of crypto assets from the protocol. The latest incident marks the largest exploit for Balancer.
“Balancer went through 10+ audits. the vault was audited 3 separate times by different firms. still got hacked…this space needs to accept that ‘audited by X’ means almost nothing. code is hard, defi is harder. it is unfortunate but hope the team recovers,” an analyst stated.
The hack comes as crypto-related attacks had slowed in the previous month. October offered a brief respite, with about 15 major incidents resulting in roughly $18.18 million in losses — an 85.7% drop from September. However, this latest event suggests that malicious actors are regaining momentum.
Chainalysis previously warned that 2025 could be the worst year ever for crypto thefts, highlighting the persistence and evolution of these threats across the industry.
