Balancer’s Ultimatum: Hacker Offered “Bounty” Deal With a Hard Deadline

Balancer’s Ultimatum: Hacker Offered “Bounty” Deal With a Hard Deadline

The Balancer exploit saga has entered a new phase: negotiation.

In a public on-chain message, the Balancer DAO has reached out directly to the attacker, issuing a clear ultimatum: return the funds and walk away, or face full-scale pursuit.

This is the first major update since the protocol confirmed the “significant exploit” that drained millions from its V2 Composable Stable Pools and triggered ripple effects across multiple DeFi chains.

The Offer: A Whitehat Path Out

The DAO’s message opens with what it calls an “opportunity to resolve this without escalation.”

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Balancer is offering the exploiter a bounty deal: return the stolen funds to the DAO multisig in exchange for a reward, commonly understood in DeFi as around 10%.

It’s the standard “whitehat” arrangement: no prosecution, no blacklist, and a chance to walk away clean.

The Deadline: 21:00 UTC, November 8

But this deal has a hard deadline.

The hacker has until November 8 (today), 21:00 UTC to respond and cooperate. After that, Balancer says it will treat silence as refusal and escalate.

The DAO’s message reads “If we do not receive a response by that time, we will assume you are unwilling to help… and will escalate our response.”

The escalation includes “all technical, on-chain, and legal measures” to identify and pursue the attacker.

Balancer even notes it may use the bounty funds to “reward verified informants” who assist in uncovering the exploiter’s identity.

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The Clock Is Ticking

The message makes one thing clear: the whitehat window is closing fast.

Balancer’s core contributors and security partners, the same “war room” credited with recovering over $20 million earlier this week, are now pivoting from defense to pursuit.

The hacker has one last chance to take the deal before the DAO’s investigation goes fully public.

DeFi is watching closely to see which path they choose.

Balancer’s Ultimatum: Hacker Offered “Bounty” Deal With a Hard Deadline