Uniswap Just Burned $700M… Here’s Why!

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Uniswap governance, in a move that would make even the most jaded crypto investor do a double-take, approved the UNIfication overhaul on December 25, locking in a 100-million-UNI treasury burn. 🧨 The vote also activated protocol fees, because nothing says “holiday cheer” like turning your platform into a cash cow. 🦄

Uniswap Vote Details

The on-chain vote closed with 125,342,017 UNI in favor, and 742 against. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams posted on X, clearing the 40 million UNI quorum by more than 3x. 🎄 “After a ~2day vote timelock, 100m UNI will be burned, fee switches will be flipped…” – Hayden Adams, who probably still hasn’t figured out how to use a microwave. 😅

Voting has concluded on Unification 🦄

125,342,017 YES742 NO

Unified, true to the name

After a ~2day vote timelock, 100m UNI will be burned, fee switches will be flipped, labs will turn off frontend fees and focus on the protocol, and more

Merry Christmas everyone 🎄

– Hayden Adams 🦄 (@haydenzadams) December 25, 2025

After the mandatory ~2-day timelock (which, let’s be honest, is just a fancy way of saying “wait for a few days while we panic”), the contracts execute, and the burn transactions and fee parameters go live. Governance records show turnout of more than 20% of outstanding UNI – one of the highest participation rates in the protocol’s history. 🤯

UNI traded around $6.05, +2.3% in 24h at 17:00 UTC on December 26, holding gains from a run that started when the vote opened. 📈

Uniswap price on Dec. 26 | Source: CoinMarketCap

What Changes After the Uniswap Vote

The primary spec, published as the UNIfication proposal, lays out eight concrete actions. The protocol will transfer 100 million UNI from the treasury to a burn address – the crypto equivalent of a black hole, but with more math. 🌌

It will remove roughly 16% of total supply from circulation, and flip the long-dormant fee switch on Uniswap v2 and a curated set of high-volume v3 pools on Ethereum mainnet. For v2, LP fees move from 0.30% to 0.25%, with 0.05% of volume now accruing to the protocol. For v3, the proposal sets protocol fees at 25% of LP fees on the 0.01% and 0.05% tiers… because why not? 🤷‍♂️

Uniswap burn mechanism | Source: gov.uniswap.org

Fees will accumulate there until UNI is destroyed. At that point, the contract will release claims, turning protocol usage directly into supply reduction. 🚀

In addition, Labs committed to turn off all frontend, wallet, and API fees, removing application-layer monetization from its products. In exchange, governance approved a 40-million-UNI treasury allocation on a two-year vesting schedule. Because nothing says “we’re serious about growth” like giving away 40 million UNI. 💸

Uniswap to Burn Up to $700M of UNI Annually

Uniswap Labs’ blog notes that Unichain currently runs at roughly $100 billion in annualized DEX volume and around $7.5 million in annualized sequencer fees. It will now join swap fees as inputs to the burn engine. 🧪

Third-party modeling from research pieces by Tekedia and OKX estimates that the combined system can erase $280 million to $700 million worth of UNI annually if 2025 fee levels persist. Because who needs money when you can have a good burn? 🔥

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2025-12-26 15:20