Beanstalk Stablecoin Protocol 'Barn Raise' Aims to Restore $77M in Lost Funds

Ethereum-based stablecoin protocol Beanstalk will kick off a fundraising campaign on June 6 to restore $77 million in non-native assets lost from a governance exploit that drained $182 million from the project.

In April, an attacker bought a controlling stake of Beanstalk tokens, then used that position to exploit the governance structure, voting to send themself all of Beanstalk’s funds.

“The Barn Raise” fundraiser will begin at 12 p.m. ET on June 6 and last until all of the so-called fertilizer tokens are sold, according to a press release.

Beanstalk will sell 77 million fertilizer tokens for 1 USDC each, and will borrow that $77 million in exchange for debt at up to 500% interest. Fertilizer holders will receive a pro rata share of one-third of newly minted beans, Beanstalk’s native stablecoin. The protocol said that about $10 million in funds (or 15% of available fertilizer tokens) have already been committed.

As part of the fundraiser, Beanstalk will also launch a 10,000-item non-fungible token (NFT) series, The Barn Raise NFT Collection, which will be made available to the first participants contributing at least 1,000 USDC before the protocol’s relaunch.

Beanstalk will formally resume operations in early July after two separate security audits are completed.

The Beanstalk decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) said it is working to strengthen the governance structure, switching to a community-run multisignature wallet custodied by nine Beanstalk community members – a short-term solution until a more robust security mechanism is developed, audited and implemented.

Beanstalk was among a wave of high-profile attacks that kicked off 2022, which also included an over $326 million loss for blockchain bridge Wormhole and a $625 million exploit of Axie Infinity’s Ronin blockchain that U.S. officials linked to North Korea.