Uniswap reveals assets ahead of fee mechanism vote

The Uniswap Foundation has disclosed holding $41.41 million in fiat and stablecoins and 730,000 UNIUSD tokens as of the end of the first quarter. 

According to the publication, the Foundation committed $4.34 million in new grants during this period and disbursed $2.79 million in previously committed grants.

The fiat cash and stables are designated for grant-making and operating activities, while the UNIUSD tokens are reserved for employee token awards.

The Uniswap Foundation has also announced that on-chain voting for a proposal to establish its new fee mechanism will occur by May 31. According to the foundation, the proposal outlines a crucial step toward implementing autonomous fee collection and distribution in Uniswap v3 pools.

Upon approval of the proposal, control of the mainnet UniswapV3Factory will be transferred to a new, specially designed V3FactoryOwner contract, marking a milestone in the decentralized governance of Uniswap. However, the vote will not activate the fees, which will be addressed in a future proposal.

Uniswap Foundation stated that the free switch will be implemented despite the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Wells notification against the DeFi protocol. The notice, released in April, alleged that the company had violated securities laws by functioning as an unregistered securities exchange and broker.

Uniswap Labs claimed that the SEC does not have jurisdiction to regulate its decentralized protocol under current legal categorizations.

The company’s response was timely, as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to vote on a bill — the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act — that could change how the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulate crypto.

The SEC has been investigating Uniswap Labs, Uniswap’s main developer, since 2021. The decentralized exchange (DEX) has previously delisted several tokens from its platform, citing growing regulatory pressure.

Uniswap’s fee revenue has always been entirely allocated to liquidity providers (LPs), who earn rewards for supplying assets to the platform, supporting trading activity and market liquidity.

However, the new proposal will share protocol fees among UNI tokenholders who stake or delegate their tokens, creating an incentive structure that rewards active engagement and encourages meaningful contributions within the Uniswap ecosystem.

Back in February, the Uniswap Foundation put forward a proposal to introduce a fee reward system aimed at incentivizing UNI tokenholders to engage more actively in governance decisions, thereby enhancing community participation and decision-making processes.