Table of Contents
ToggleIn the DeFi world, decentralized exchanges (DEX) are not just trading platforms but also provide liquidity for the entire ecosystem. Among these, Balancer stands out for its flexible liquidity pool customization, which traditional AMMs like Uniswap or SushiSwap cannot do. So what is Balancer? Let's explore with Allinstation through the article below!
[The rest of the translation follows the same pattern, translating all text while preserving HTML tags]- Liquidity Mining: 65%
- Team & Founder: 25%
- Ecosystem Incentives: 5%
- Seed Investors: 5%
Token Release Schedule
Balancer does not provide clear information about the release time for BAL for three categories: Team & Founder, Balancer Ecosystem Fund, and Seed Round. Liquidity mining will be distributed 145,000 BAL per week (~7,540,000 BAL annually), and it will take approximately 8.6 years to distribute the entire 65 million BAL.
BAL Utility
- Governance: Vote on DAO proposals.
- Reward: Receive LP rewards when participating in incentivized pools.
- Staking: Participate in staking to increase voting rights and receive veBAL.
veBAL (vote-escrow BAL): Users lock BAL to receive veBAL, participate in voting, and receive a portion of protocol transaction fees.
Balancer DAO & Governance:
- Governance is controlled by the community holding BAL and veBAL.
- Proposals include: fee configuration, adding new pools, contract updates, etc.
- Some other DAOs like Aave, Lido, Beethoven X are also actively interacting with Balancer's governance.
Team & Investors, Project Partners of Balancer (BAL)
Founding Team
- Mike McDonald, co-founder and CTO of Balancer, is a security engineer who created mkr.tools.
- Fernando Martnelli, co-founder and CEO of Balancer, is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience outside of work and has co-founded multiple companies before establishing Balancer.
Investors and Partners
Investors
Balancer has gone through multiple funding rounds since its inception, attracting attention from many prominent investment funds in the crypto and blockchain space.
Seed Round – 24/03/2020
Balancer raised 3 million USD in the Seed round at $0.60/BAL. Investors included CoinFund, Accomplice, and other partners. This was the first milestone marking Balancer's development from a flexible AMM idea to a practical DeFi project.
Strategic Round – 10/11/2020
In November 2020, Balancer received strategic investment from major funds like Pantera Capital and Alameda Research. Although the funding amount was undisclosed, this was an important step in expanding the project's development strategy and liquidity.
Series A – 11/02/2021
Balancer raised an additional 5 million USD in the Series A round. Investors included DeFiance Capital and Three Arrows Capital – two major names in the 2021 DeFi boom. This capital was used to enhance product development and expand to Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and Polygon.
Undisclosed Round – 27/05/2021
An undisclosed round without details on token quantity or valuation, but Balancer raised 24.25 million USD from notable investors like Blockchain Capital, Fenbushi Capital, LongHash Ventures, FinTech Collective, Continue Capital, and individuals like Jordan Momtazi. This was one of Balancer's largest funding rounds.
Grant – 13/10/2023
Most recently, Balancer received a grant worth 965,000 USD from Arbitrum Foundation. This support aims to promote the expansion of the Balancer ecosystem on Arbitrum Layer 2, while encouraging liquidity development and DeFi activities there.
Partners
Balancer's partners include:
- Lido Finance – integrating assets like wstETH.
- Aave – using Balancer pools as liquidation venues.
- Gyroscope, Aura Finance, Beethoven X – built on Balancer.
- Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism – providing multi-chain infrastructure.
Summary
Balancer is not just a DEX, but a powerful AMM infrastructure platform that can be customized and integrated for various DeFi projects. With BAL token at its center, Balancer is the "liquidity backend" of an entire ecosystem.
This is one of the most sustainable AMM protocols, supported by a strong community, flexible technology, and stable operations across multiple blockchains.
