Uniswap is once again making headlines in the DeFi sector after Hayden Adams, founder and CEO of Uniswap Labs, announced a major governance proposal to operationalize protocol fees and align incentives across the Uniswap ecosystem. The announcement shocked the market, with UNI’s price rising more than 50% in the hours following the news – reflecting renewed optimism among investors and traders.
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In a mail Shared on X, Adams spoke about the development of Uniswap: “Uniswap has been my passion and sole focus for the past eight years. What started as a small side project is now a global financial infrastructure powering thousands of applications with $1.8 trillion in annual trading.”
Since launching UNI in 2020, Uniswap Labs has largely been unable to meaningfully engage in governance, constrained by regulatory pressures that Adams said cost “thousands of hours and tens of millions in legal fees.” Now, as the regulatory environment shifts, these restrictions appear to be easing.
Inside Hayden Adams’ vision for reshaping the future of Uniswap
In his new rule an offerUniswap founder Hayden Adams has outlined a comprehensive plan to overhaul how the protocol works, distributes value, and aligns incentives across its ecosystem. “At a high level, the proposal seeks to operationalize protocol fees and direct them toward UNI burns, creating a sustainable mechanism for value accumulation,” Adams explained.
The plan also includes sending Unichain blockchain fees to UNI burning, further tightening the token supply, and burning 100 million UNI from the treasury, which represents the fees that would have been burned if the mechanism had been active since launch. Another key component introduces protocol fee discount auctions, a new feature designed to improve liquidity provider (LP) scores and capture MEV (mining extractable value) directly for the protocol.
Adams also proposes “collection hooks” for Uniswap v4, turning them into an on-chain aggregator capable of collecting fees from external liquidity sources — a move that could expand Uniswap’s reach across the DeFi ecosystem. In addition to these technical changes, the proposal redefines Uniswap Labs’ role, directing it to focus exclusively on protocol growth and governance-aligned initiatives, while ending fee collection on its interface, wallet, and API to encourage broader adoption.
Finally, the plan will consolidate Labs’ enterprise employees under a new growth fund and move Unisocks’ proprietary governance liquidity to the fourth release on Unichain, where it will be burned.
However, not everyone sees this as purely bullish. Some analysts argue that the move reflects increasing pressure from competitors such as Aerodrome Finance, whose rapid expansion of its ecosystem has taken liquidity away from Uniswap. From this perspective, the proposal may represent a bold strategic pivot and defensive play to reassert Uniswap’s dominance in the rapidly evolving DeFi landscape.
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UNI Price Analysis: Massive Breakout Follows Governance Proposal
UNIswap’s cryptocurrency, UNI, has recorded a strong rebound following Hayden Adams’ governance proposal, with price action reflecting a decisive change in sentiment. As seen on the 3-day chart, UNI is up nearly 50%, rising from around $5.80 to a local high above $10.30 before settling near $8.20 at the time of writing. This rise came alongside a sharp rise in trading volume, indicating strong market participation and renewed investor confidence.
Technically, the UNI breakout has reclaimed both the 50-day and 100-day moving averages, indicating a potential shift in momentum after months of bearish consolidation. However, the 200-day EMA near the $9.50-$10.00 area still represents a critical resistance level to watch. A clean break above it could open the door for a continuation towards the $12 to $14 range, where UNI last faced heavy distribution.
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The volume profile highlights significant accumulation pressure below $6, in line with long-term support that has been tested several times since mid-2024. While the market may see a short-term bounce after such a sharp move, the combination of bullish fundamentals and a structural recovery on the chart suggests that UNI may be entering a new medium-term accumulation phase – and its next trajectory will likely be linked to community approval for the activation of the newly proposed protocol fee.
Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
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