Uniswap token pumps following governance fee switch proposal

The price of the UNI token has jumped from $7.24 to $10.22 in less than an hour

article-image

dRender/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The Uniswap Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the growth of decentralized exchange Uniswap, is proposing an upgrade to the Uniswap Protocol Governance so that its fee mechanisms will reward UNI token holders.

Specifically, the Foundation is looking to upgrade the protocol governance to enable the collection of protocol fees, distribute these fees pro-rata to token holders who have staked and delegated their UNI votes and continue to enable governance to be in charge of core parameters around fees.

Following the announcement of this proposal, Uniswap’s native token (UNI) has seen its price jump by over 40% from $7.24 to $10.22 in less than an hour, information on CoinGecko shows.

Read more: Uniswap DAO to weigh giving ‘underrepresented’ delegates more voting power

Erin Koen, the governance lead at Uniswap Foundation, wrote in a post on X that if approved, this proposal will help increase the resilience and decentralization of Uniswap Governance. 

Loading Tweet..

Koen notes that the Uniswap Protocol has become a market share leader with very little governance in place.

“Maintaining this lead is only going to get more difficult. Liquidity is fragmenting across many chains, intents are a thing, MEV is a thing, competition is very smart, etc,” Koen wrote. 

In order to maintain this lead, Koen thinks that it will be necessary to make some governance shake-ups, which include making delegation necessary for UNI token stakers. 

Devin Walsh, the executive director of the Uniswap Foundation, says that this upgrade will allow Uniswap to create a more resilient governance system.

“This proposal aims to incentivize active and thoughtful delegation, which we believe will lead to the long-term success and sustainability of the Protocol,” Walsh told Blockworks. “We’re also grateful to have been able to work with top-tier grantees like Scopelift, Gauntlet, Avantgarde, Agora and more on the components of this proposal, and we believe their cumulative output is world-class.”

Loading Tweet..

Weighing in on the likelihood of whether or not this proposal will pass, Blockworks research analyst Matt Fiebach said that “although past attempts at turning on the fee switch have failed, I am confident this time is different, and the proposal is poised to succeed.”

He adds “the Foundation’s support combined with proceeding research and development work gives this fee switch proposal more credibility. It is unlikely the Foundation would have taken these steps without doing vigorous sentiment checks of the largest stakeholders.”

Disclaimer: Blockworks Research is an active delegate in the Uniswap DAO. Stakeholders have delegated 500k UNI tokens toward Blockworks Research to participate in Uniswap governance. Members of Blockworks Research also serve in positions on the Uniswap Deployment Committee, responsible for strategic growth of the protocol. The Blockworks newsroom is a separate entity and does not participate in these processes.


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

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday