The first quarter report from the Uniswap Foundation reveals that they currently hold $41.41 million in fiat and stablecoins, as well as 730,000 UNI tokens. During this time, the Foundation allocated $4.34 million in new grants and disbursed $2.79 million in previously committed grants. The fiat and stablecoins are designated for grant-making and operating activities, while the UNI tokens are reserved for employee token awards.
In addition, the Uniswap Foundation has announced that on-chain voting for a proposal to establish a new fee mechanism will take place by May 31. This proposal is seen as a crucial step towards implementing autonomous fee collection and distribution in Uniswap v3 pools. If approved, control of the mainnet UniswapV3Factory will be transferred to a new V3FactoryOwner contract, marking an important milestone in the decentralized governance of Uniswap. However, the fees will not be activated through this vote, as that will be addressed in a future proposal.
Despite the recent Wells notification from the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) against the DeFi protocol, the Uniswap Foundation has stated that the fee switch will still be implemented. The SEC’s notice, accusing the company of violating securities laws, does not deter Uniswap Labs, the main developer of Uniswap, as they believe the SEC does not have jurisdiction over their decentralized protocol.
The timing of Uniswap Labs’ response aligns with the vote on the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, which could potentially change how the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulate cryptocurrencies.
It is worth noting that the SEC has been investigating Uniswap Labs since 2021. In response to growing regulatory pressure, Uniswap has previously delisted several tokens from its platform.
The new fee proposal aims to distribute protocol fees among UNI tokenholders who stake or delegate their tokens. This incentive structure is designed to reward active engagement and encourage meaningful contributions within the Uniswap ecosystem.
In February, the Uniswap Foundation introduced a proposal for a fee reward system to incentivize UNI tokenholders to participate more actively in governance decisions, enhancing community participation and decision-making processes.