Uniswap DAO Votes to Reclaim $42M in Loaned UNI Tokens
Uniswap’s decentralised autonomous organisation is voting on a proposal to reclaim roughly $42 million worth of UNI governance tokens previously loaned to delegates, according to a report from DL News.
Between 2022 and 2023, the Uniswap DAO loaned out 12.5 million UNI tokens to the nonprofit Uniswap Foundation and several top delegates in an effort to boost participation in governance decisions. Erin Koen, the proposal’s author and governance lead at Uniswap Labs, said that goal has now been achieved and the tokens are no longer needed for that purpose.
Koen said governance activity has increased significantly since the loans were issued. She noted that passed proposals have averaged about 75 million votes in turnout since the establishment of DUNI, Uniswap’s Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association, exceeding quorum requirements by roughly 88 percent, per DL News.
DUNI is a legal entity that treats onchain governance votes as legally binding while shielding DAO members from personal liability for collective decisions.
The proposal arrives as Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation face continued criticism over the protocol’s degree of decentralisation. Critics cited by DL News have argued the Uniswap Foundation wields outsized influence, sometimes advancing proposals with limited community input, and that large token holders and venture firms, including a16z crypto, dominate voting power at the expense of smaller holders.
The governance debate has also drawn attention from US lawmakers. Democratic Representative Sean Casten questioned Uniswap DAO’s decentralisation during a congressional hearing on the Clarity Act in June, DL News reported. In response, Uniswap Labs and the Foundation authored a separate proposal, passed in December, aimed at aligning incentives across the two entities and the DAO, including new protocol fees used to buy back and remove UNI tokens from circulation.
According to data compiled by Snapshot cited by DL News, 56 delegates now hold voting power exceeding 1 million UNI.
Based on reporting by www.dlnews.com.
