Balancer contributors clarify accounting for buffer positions and legacy LDO rewards, noting that partner rewards persist after liquidity exits.
Regulation & Gov ·
On October 26, 2026, Balancer contributors flagged unclaimed funds and rewards in the protocol, identifying liquidity-buffer positions for Ethena and Gauntlet alongside legacy LDO rewards belonging to Gnosis DAO. The notice asked former liquidity providers to verify buffer shares, partner rewards, and staked pool positions that standard portfolio dashboards may not detect, as these holdings use the Vault's internal accounting system rather than appearing as standard on-chain tokens.
Buffer shares function distinctly from ordinary pool tokens: they are non-transferable, recorded internally by the Vault, and can only be withdrawn by the account that originally supplied the liquidity. The buffers hold underlying assets alongside ERC4626 vault tokens to provide conversion liquidity without routing through external wrapping or unwrapping operations, reducing gas costs. Removal occurs through the Vault's removeLiquidityFromBuffer function, which requires the caller to specify the share amount to burn. Buffer positions generate no swap fees, no yield participation, and carry no liquidity-mining entitlements.
A separate finding noted that partner rewards can persist after liquidity exits from positions. The article reviewed does not establish account-specific withdrawal amounts for the named entities, and contributors have not independently verified on-chain withdrawals or measured remaining balances. Most identified entities had reportedly begun withdrawal processes following notification.