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- StakeWise recovers $20M after a major DeFi exploit, reclaiming 73.5% of stolen funds from the Balancer hack.
- The Balancer hack, affecting multiple layer-2 networks, resulted in a $128M loss, with suspected laundering.
- Affected users will receive recovered funds, while Balancer offers a 20% white-hat bounty for returns.
StakeWise has already reclaimed the majority of the money stolen in one of the largest decentralized finance (DEFI) attacks of the week. One of the biggest exploits of 2025 occurred to Balancer and the related networks. The fast response of StakeWise is an exception in dealing with the outcome of such breaches.
StakeWise On November 4, the DAO emergency multisig stated that it had recovered 5,041 osETH, equivalent to 19 million in value, and 13,495 osGNO, equivalent to 1.7 million in value.
The large amount of 6,851 ETH stolen in the attack was recovered at 73.5%. The rest, 26.5%, or approximately 7 million dollars, was then immediately converted by the attacker to ETH, and it could not be recovered.
StakeWise to Refund Affected Users and Provide Full Report
The money back will be shared with the affected users according to their initial balances before the exploitation. StakeWise has assured us that it will deliver a complete post-mortem and show additional actions in the next few days.
The attack was on the V2 Composable Stable Pools of Balancer, which had a vulnerability in the ManageUserBalance method. This enabled the attacker to withdraw funds without permission, manipulate balances, and transfer Balancer Pool Tokens to Ethereum. The exploit propagated across several layer-2 networks, Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon, among others.
Also Read: Zerohash Europe Secures MiCAR License from Dutch AFM to Expand Regulated Crypto Services Across EU
Balancer Hack Results in $128M Loss, Money Laundering Suspected
PeckShield and Lookonchain, blockchain analytics companies, later validated that the amount lost in the attack amounted to more than $128 million, much higher than the initial projections of $70 million. However, the hacker combined the stolen tokens into several wallets and started to convert them into ETH, causing a suspicion of possible money laundering.
However, Balancer replied quickly and stopped afflicted pools and went to the recovery mode. The team provided a 20% white-hat bounty, to the value of $25.6 million, to the attacker in exchange for giving back the stolen money. Other related protocols, like Gnios and Berachain, were halted to curtail the harm as well.
This intrusion has turned out to be the biggest one in the history of Balancer. While, it becomes part of the increasingly large number of security events in the world of DeFi in 2025. Although it has been extensively felt, the success of the recovery boost by StakeWise is a rare positive result amidst a huge attack.
Also Read: Balancer Exploit Drains $128M in Assets, Market Reacts as Exploit Continues
