Uniswap Foundation Gets $177 Million in Funding as Ethereum DeFi Users Await Fee Sharing

Two new Uniswap governance proposals passed on Wednesday, securing around $177 million worth of UNI token-based funding for the Ethereum DeFi protocol’s Foundation to help support the growth of Uniswap V4 and Unichain—while potentially paving the way for “revenue activation,” as well.

The proposals both received more than 80% support from voters, and will lead to the distribution of nearly 29 million UNI tokens—now valued around $198 million, due to a price jump following Wednesday’s successful passage—to support the protocol’s growth. 

“We recognize and appreciate the size of this request. It reflects an investment into the success of the Uniswap Protocol and Unichain, and into value for the Uniswap community,” wrote Uniswap Foundation Executive Director Devin Walsh.

Almost 73% of the approximately 29 million tokens are earmarked for governance proposal #83, entitled “Uniswap Unleashed.” This proposal, which calls for investments to fund operations and the Uniswap Foundation grants budget, outlines four strategic priorities for the protocol in the years ahead–one of which focuses on “activating revenue.” 

In other words, this priority outlines some of the groundwork for what could ultimately provide Uniswap protocol revenue back to delegators and UNI token holders—frequently dubbed the “fee switch.” 

To start, the Foundation will investigate the merits of creating a legal entity that may provide additional legal clarity for enacting the fee switch, while also allowing it to contract with other entities. If deemed the best path forward, then the Foundation would then create or reintroduce proposals that enable the fee switch, providing protocol revenue back to token delegators.

Previous temperature checks and fee switch designs have been debated for years on the Uniswap Governance forums, but to date no proposal has passed. 

Uniswap’s protocol revenue first saw a significant jump in early 2021 and has since climbed to more than $4.4 billion cumulatively, according to data from DefiLlama. The protocol has generated more than $1 billion in the last calendar year alone. 

The UNI token is down 2% in the last 24 hours to a current price of $6.83, but is up nearly 18% over the last week. It remains almost 85% off the all-time high token price of $44.92 from May 2021.

Edited by Andrew Hayward