Uniswap's UNI Jumps 19% as Governance Vote to Activate Protocol Fees Opens
UNI rose about 19% in the past 24 hours as on-chain voting began on the Unification proposal to activate protocol fees and burn UNI.
The Unification proposal aims to align Uniswap Labs, the Foundation, and governance under a shared fee and incentive framework. It would implement protocol fees on Uniswap v2 and select v3 pools with a burn mechanism.
Included in the proposal is a retroactive burn of 100 million UNI from the treasury to approximate burns since the early years. It also introduces MEV-optimizing features and new auction-based systems designed to internalize MEV and improve liquidity provider returns.
If enacted, development and ecosystem initiatives would be funded through a governance-approved growth budget. Uniswap Labs would then focus on protocol development and growth, with layer fees removed from the interface, wallet, and API.
On-chain voting opened at 03:50 UTC on December 20, 2025, with early data showing overwhelming support. The vote is set to run until 18:14 UTC on December 25, 2025.
In a relatively muted crypto backdrop, UNI outperformed as bitcoin hovered near $88,300 and ether traded around $2,976. The total crypto market capitalization saw an increase of about 1%.
Past attempts to activate protocol fees had stalled due to regulatory uncertainty and design disagreements, but the formal on-chain vote has renewed market interest around the direct value accrual to UNI holders.
