Berachain recovers $12.8M lost in Balancer exploit
Berachain Foundation confirmed the recovery of $12.8 million lost during the Nov. 3 Balancer V2 exploit. The funds were fully restored to the foundation's deployer wallet via a white-hat collaboration after halting and restarting the network. Over 1,000 affected users will receive redistribution of the recovered funds. The Balancer exploit caused $128M in cross-chain losses due to a precision error, affecting multiple chains. Despite audits, the incident raised concerns about DeFi security. Berachain's swift action, including an emergency hard fork and chain halt, enabled the full recovery, with the BERA token eventually rebounding after the announcement.
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Berachain Recovers $12.8 Million from Balancer Exploit
The Berachain Foundation has announced the successful recovery of $12.8 million that was lost during the Nov. 3 Balancer V2 exploit. This recovery was achieved by halting and restarting its network, showcasing a rare full restitution in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).
White-Hat Collaboration Leads to Recovery
The recovery was made possible through collaboration with a white-hat hacker, who cooperated to return the stolen assets. The foundation expressed its gratitude and hinted at offering a bounty in appreciation. They also resumed core operations like HONEY minting and redemption after completing the recovery.
On November 4, 2025, the foundation confirmed via an update on X:
"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... Chain is live."
This quick response has restored confidence in Berachain’s operations.
Impact on Affected Users
Berachain temporarily halted all swaps, deposits, and withdrawals after the exploit to prevent further losses. Over 1,000 affected users will be compensated through a redistribution system, matching recovered funds to their original wallet addresses. This move aims to ensure the fair treatment of impacted stakeholders.
Details on the Balancer Exploit
The Nov. 3 Balancer exploit targeted the protocol’s V2 Composable Stable Pools, leveraging a precision error in the manageUserBalance function. This vulnerability allowed attackers to drain approximately $128 million across multiple chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, and others. Notably, over half of the stolen assets were converted to ETH.
Despite Balancer undergoing nine audits on its vault system, the incident reignited debates on the security challenges of composable DeFi architectures. Balancer attempted to recover assets by offering a 20% white-hat bounty equivalent to $25.6 million.
Berachain's Swift Action and System Resilience
Berachain, a Cosmos-based Layer-1 network leveraging a proof-of-liquidity consensus, was impacted via its Balancer fork, BEX. In response, its validators halted the chain within hours, conducted an emergency hard fork, and froze the attacker’s assets. Cooperation with the MEV operator behind the exploit led to the recovery of the full amount.
Following the announcement, the BERA token initially saw a 10% decline, but investor confidence rebounded after the recovery, underscoring the project’s resilience and operational efficiency.
Parallel Case: StakeWise Recovery
In a related development, liquid staking platform StakeWise also managed to recover about $20 million in stolen assets. These incidents highlight both the vulnerabilities and the potential for recovery in the evolving DeFi landscape.