• Uniswap discloses that it held $41 million in fiat and stablecoins in addition to 730,000 UNI as of the end of the first quarter. 

• The Uniswap Foundation has also announced an upcoming fee mechanism vote towards the implementation of the autonomous fee collection and distribution in Uniswap V3 pools. 

Decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI) has over the years made a significant step forward in the world of decentralized finance to gain substantial market shares despite initial skepticism. In demonstrating its substantial influence on the ecosystem, it has recorded about $3.2 million in fees in the past 24 hours. 

Pending the upcoming on-chain vote scheduled by May 31, the Uniswap Foundation has also disclosed that it holds $41.41 million in fiat and stablecoins and 730,000 UNI as of the end of the first quarter. Within this period, $4.34 million in new grants has been committed by the Foundation with $2.79 million disbursed in the previously committed grants. Interestingly, the UNI tokens are reserved for employees’ token rewards while the fiat (USD) cash and stables are meant for grant-making and operating activities. 

🚀 Uniswap’s fee mechanism vote is heating up the #DeFi space! With $41.41M in assets disclosed, and UNI up 12.31%, it’s a pivotal moment for decentralized finance. Get ready to shape the future of Uniswap! #UNI #Crypto pic.twitter.com/eAV4Zmts0l— Collin Brown (@CollinBrownXRP) May 26, 2024

Uniswap Fee Mechanism Vote

As earlier mentioned, this disclosure comes at a time when the Uniswap Foundation makes a crucial outline as part of the steps towards the implementation of the autonomous fee collection and distribution in Uniswap V3 pools. After a successful passage of the proposal, the owner of the mainnet UniswapV3Factory would have the ability to transfer to a newly deployed instance of V3FactoryOwner.

With that happening, the Foundation has clarified that the vote would not activate the fees which are subjected to resolution in a future proposal. However, it would seek to redistribute fees to include rewards for staked and delegated Uni token holders, marking a shift from the current focus on liquidity providers. 

In responding to this groundbreaking announcement, the UNI token has recorded a staggering 43% surge in the last seven days to trade at $11.12. However, the broad market pullback in the past couple of days has forced a 15% decline in its 24-hour trading volume with the daily price growth currently showing negative 1.59%. 

Regardless, the weekly price change reflects the positive market sentiment towards this proposal. For now, the increased participation in staking and delegating Uni tokens to benefit from fee distribution could be witnessed in the short term. However, liquidity providers may experience a declining reward, marking a potential implication for their relentless support for the platform. 

What to Expect in the Long Term

In the long term, potential competition from other decentralized exchanges that will adopt a similar model is expected. On top of that, there could be an increase in advocacy by jurisdictions and entities for centralized exchanges to take advantage of this development in their argument against decentralized exchanges. Most importantly, this initiative would be done against the backdrop of the Wells Notice recently received from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claiming the exchange has violated securities laws by operating as an unregistered securities exchange and broker. 

It is worth noting that the SEC has been investigating the main Uniswap developer, Uniswap Labs, since 2021, forcing the exchange to delist several tokens from its platform over regulatory concerns. However, a Crypto News Flash publication that reviewed a Uniswap response cites that the exchange disagrees with the Commission on the grounds of its jurisdiction to regulate its decentralized protocol under the existing legal categorization.