Berachain Recovers Funds Lost in Balancer Exploit
The Berachain Foundation confirmed the recovery of $12.8 million in assets lost during the Balancer V2 exploit on November 3. The funds, initially drained from Berachain’s BEX liquidity pools, have now been returned to the foundation’s deployer wallet, according to an update shared on X (formerly Twitter).
We are happy to confirm that all funds (approx $12.8m) from the BEX / Balancer v2 exploit have been returned to the Berachain Foundation Deployer (https://t.co/HjCONAGpOZ). Chain is live.
We’d like to thank the white hat who worked with us to make this happen – we’ll ensure that…
— Berachain Foundation 🐻⛓ (@berachain) November 4, 2025
The recovery followed swift coordination between Berachain’s team and a white-hat hacker, who cooperated in returning the stolen funds after the chain was briefly halted and restarted. The foundation announced it will consider issuing a bounty to the collaborator and has resumed core network functions, including HONEY minting and redemptions.
Network Stabilization and User Reimbursements
Following the exploit, Berachain temporarily suspended swaps, deposits, and withdrawals to contain the breach. Over 1,000 affected users are now set to receive their assets back through a redistribution plan that matches recovered funds to the original deposit addresses.
This full recovery makes Berachain one of the few DeFi projects to successfully retrieve all stolen funds after a major exploit. StakeWise, another platform affected in the same incident, also reported recovering $20 million in assets.
The Berachain team said the exploit highlighted the importance of network coordination and on-chain transparency during crisis response.
Inside the Balancer V2 Exploit
The Balancer V2 hack targeted the protocol’s Composable Stable Pools, exploiting a precision error in the manageUserBalance function to drain roughly $128 million across multiple chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, Optimism, Sonic, and Berachain.
Despite undergoing nine audits, the attack reignited concerns about the security limits of composable DeFi architectures, particularly those involving shared liquidity protocols. More than half of the stolen funds were converted into ETH shortly after the exploit.
Berachain’s validators quickly executed an emergency hard fork, freezing the attacker’s assets. Negotiations with a MEV operator led to the complete recovery of stolen funds.
Market Reaction and DeFi Implications
Following the recovery announcement, BERA, Berachain’s native token, rebounded after falling 10% in the immediate aftermath of the exploit. Analysts note that the incident underscores both the risks and resilience of the DeFi ecosystem.
While the full restitution restores confidence in Berachain’s operations, the broader Balancer breach serves as a warning about vulnerabilities in even the most audited DeFi protocols.
