The Uniswap DAO proposal reclaimed $42 million worth of UNI delegated tokens; voting concludes this week.

The Uniswap DAO is currently voting on a proposal to reclaim approximately 12.5 million UNI tokens (worth about $42 million) previously lent to delegates and the foundation. The vote will conclude on May 8th, with approximately 53% in favor, 46% abstaining, and very few opposing votes. Between 2022 and 2023, the DAO lent out these governance tokens to increase governance participation. Uniswap Labs stated that current governance activity has significantly increased, with an average of approximately 75 million votes cast, and the mechanism has achieved its intended effect. This reclamation also aims to address the incentive mismatch issue—some delegates holding significant voting power despite lacking their own economic exposure. Simultaneously, this move is seen as a response to external doubts about the degree of decentralization in governance. Furthermore, the Uniswap ecosystem has recently been advancing reforms including fee mechanisms, token buybacks and burns, and governance structure optimization to further enhance governance transparency and decentralization.