BAL Token
Overview
Balancer Governance Token (BAL) is the core token behind the Balancer protocol. Alignment between governance token holders and protocol stakeholders is crucial for successful decentralized governance, and BAL tokens are the vehicle to drive this alignment. veBAL is an extension of BAL and is used for voting in decentralized governance.
Contract Address
| Network | BAL Token Address |
|---|---|
| Ethereum | 0xba100000625a3754423978a60c9317c58a424e3d |
| Polygon | 0x9a71012b13ca4d3d0cdc72a177df3ef03b0e76a3 |
| Arbitrum | 0x040d1EdC9569d4Bab2D15287Dc5A4F10F56a56B8 |
| Optimism | 0xFE8B128bA8C78aabC59d4c64cEE7fF28e9379921 |
| Base | 0x4158734D47Fc9692176B5085E0F52ee0Da5d47F1 |
| Goerli | 0xfA8449189744799aD2AcE7e0EBAC8BB7575eff47 |
Supply & Inflation Schedule
The maximum total supply of BAL tokens enforced at the smart contract is 100M; however, this does NOT necessarily mean that this cap will ever be reached. BAL token holders have the authority to decide if the distribution should end before hitting the cap.
At the start of BAL token incentives 145,000 BAL were minted every week. In Q1 2022, veBAL was introduced to replace fixed weekly emissions. veBAL includes an annual reduction in emissions rate such that the program should run until around 2050, leaving a total supply of around 96/100 million tokens upon completion and assuming no other governance is enacted to mint part of the remaining unallocated supply.
TOTAL Tokens to be emitted by veBAL: 47,520,700
The current emissions rate can be understood by looking at the Balancer Token Admin Contract
You can see the emission rate (getInflationRate = 0.239 BAL/second = 145k BAL/week)
And the RATE_REDUCTION_COEFFICIENT 1.189 = 2^(1/4)
This is applied to the inflation rate every year so as to achieve the emission scheduled approved by governance
This results in the following emissions schedule:
Distribution
This chart outlines the allocation amounts. More details below.
| BAL Recipient/Fund | Original Allocation | State as of Oct 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Liquidity Providers - allocated by the community | up to 65M | ~25M |
| Founders, Options, Advisors, Investors | 22.5M | Fully vested |
| Ecosystem Fund (now DAO Multisig) | 5M | balance |
| Balancer Labs Fundraising Fund | 5M | balance |
| Balancer Labs Contributors Incentives Program | 2.5M | balance |
Liquidity Providers
Emissions to liquidty providers are decided by a combination of the emissions schedule described above, and veBAL voting to determine the allocations that flow to each authorized pool.
Founders, Options, Advisors, Investors
25M tokens were allocated to founders, options, advisors, and investors, all subject to vesting periods.
Ecosystem Fund
5M were allocated for the Ecosystem Fund. This fund will be deployed to attract and incentivize strategic partners who will help the Balancer ecosystem grow and thrive. veBAL holders will ultimately decide how this fund is used over the coming years.
Note that as part of the veBAL conversion, the entire ecosystem fund was transferred into the DAO multisig).
Original Ecosystem Fund: Mainnet, Polygon, Arbitrum
Balancer Labs Fundraising Fund
5M were originally allocated for the Balancer Labs Fundraising Fund. This fund will be used for future fundraising rounds to support Balancer Labs' operations and growth. BAL tokens will never be sold to retail users. As part of the transition to the Operating Framework Enacted by Governance in Q2 2022, 1.9M BAL was transferred from the Fundraising Fund to the DAO Multisig to supplement the community controlled supply.
For full transparency, the seed series price of one BAL token was $0.60.