Balancer

Balancer reimagines liquidity pools by allowing up to 8 tokens with customizable weightings, enabling self-balancing index funds that pay you to rebalance. Founded by Fernando Martinelli and launched in March 2020, Balancer supports weighted pools (like 80/20 ETH/TOKEN), stable pools for pegged assets, and boosted pools that route idle capital to lending protocols for additional yield. The veBAL governance system mirrors Curve's model. Major protocols use Balancer for treasury management and protocol-owned liquidity, making it infrastructure for DeFi rather than just a retail DEX.

Balancer introduces flexible liquidity pools that can contain up to 8 different tokens with customizable weightings. Unlike Uniswap's 50/50 pools, Balancer allows configurations like 80/20 (e.g., 80% TOKEN, 20% ETH), which reduces impermanent loss for the majority token. The protocol automatically rebalances your portfolio as prices change—you're essentially paid to rebalance through trading fees. Boosted Pools route idle capital to lending protocols like Aave for additional yield, while Composable Stable Pools use Curve-like algorithms for pegged assets.