Binance Unintentionally Delegated 13.2 Million UNI Tokens

“There has been a misunderstanding of what has happened,” a Binance spokesperson said

article-image

Blockworks Exclusive Art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • UNI tokens transferred to wallets that are already delegating tokens are automatically delegated
  • The CEX had 5.9% of voting power in the Uniswap DAO

Crypto exchange Binance unintentionally — and improperly — delegated 13.2 million Uniswap (UNI) tokens to its own wallet.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said on Twitter yesterday that Binance had delegated 13 million UNI tokens from its books, making it the second largest UNI delegate in the Uniswap DAO, with 5.9% of its voting power — trailing only a16z’s 6.7%. Binance confirmed the transaction in a statement. 

Loading Tweet..

Normally, more governance participation is a good thing, Adams tweeted, but added that “it’s unclear how Binance intends to engage.”

“Binance users would [probably] prefer to keep these [governing] rights,” Adams said. “In the spirit of [transparency,] would love to hear from @cz_binance on their plans.”

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said Thursday that “Binance [doesn’t] vote with users tokens,” adding that the move was not something “intended.” 

Loading Tweet..

Per a Binance spokesperson, it boils down to a “misunderstanding of what has happened during the transfer of a large balance of UNI between wallets.”

“We’re currently in discussions to improve the process to prevent any further misunderstandings happening again,” the spokesperson said.

Even still, Adams said UNI tokens transferred to wallets that are already delegating tokens are automatically assigned.

This means that because there was already an existing Binance wallet address that delegated a small number of UNI tokens for Uniswap DAO governance participation, coins transferred to that wallet were automatically assumed as voting tokens by the Uniswap code. 

“Because of this I think [it is] useful to hear how you think about CEX gov[ernance] participation [in decentralized protocols],” Adams tweeted. “Enabling gov[ernance] for your users could be powerful.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest