Balancer, one of the best-known decentralized exchanges built on automated market makers, has proposed winding down its protocol after a post-exploit restructuring failed to restore enough revenue to sustain growth. Balancer Labs CEO Marcus Hardt said he underestimated how long the fallout from a $128 million exploit in November would continue to suppress user traction. The plan, posted on Balancer’s governance forum on Monday by Hardt, calls for a phased shutdown and the distribution of a remaining treasury currently valued at more than $9 million to BAL tokenholders. The proposal follows Balancer Labs’ earlier decision to shut down in March, when the team moved to a leaner operating structure while still supporting the protocol. Key takeaways Balancer’s governance proposal would transition the protocol into a withdrawal-focused end state and wind down the DAO. The plan attributes weak revenue recovery to continued adoption drag after a November $128 million exploit tied to legacy...
S&P Global has backed Kaiko with a strategic investment that extends the Paris-based crypto market data provider’s Series B round to $110 million. The funding is intended to deepen Kaiko’s digital asset market data services while accelerating its expansion into onchain infrastructure for tokenized finance. Alongside Kaiko, the round includes major financial and market participants such as BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, and Coinbase Ventures, as well as trading and capital markets groups including DRW Venture Capital and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. Technology and blockchain ecosystem investors also participated, including Stellar. Key takeaways S&P Global’s investment lifts Kaiko’s Series B total to $110 million, signaling growing demand for institutional-grade digital asset and tokenized-market data. Kaiko says the capital will support both its established digital asset pricing and its expansion into onchain data servi...