UNI Surges after voting opens on proposal to turn on protocol fees

Uniswap’s UNI token rallied about 19% over the past 24 hours as on-chain voting began on a major governance proposal that would activate protocol fees and introduce a long-discussed UNI burn mechanism.

UNI began climbing shortly after the voting period opened at 03:50 UTC on Dec. 20, according to Uniswap governance data. A one-day UNI-USD chart from TradingView shows the sharpest leg of the rally unfolding during the early hours of the voting window, with the price breaking out from the $5.40–$5.50 range and continuing to trend higher throughout the day, alongside rising trading volume.

By around 19:30 UTC, UNI was trading near $6.27, up roughly 19% on the day. The move stood out against a relatively muted broader market, with bitcoin consolidating near $88,300 and ether trading slightly lower around $2,976. The overall crypto market capitalization was up about 1% over the same period, underscoring UNI’s relative outperformance.

The vote centers on a sweeping governance proposal known as “Unification,” a name that reflects its goal of aligning Uniswap’s economic incentives, governance structure and development efforts under a single framework. If approved, the proposal would implement protocol fees across Uniswap v2 and select v3 pools, routing those fees into a programmatic mechanism that burns UNI tokens.

The proposal also includes a retroactive burn of 100 million UNI from the treasury, intended to approximate the amount that might have been burned had protocol fees been active since Uniswap’s early years. Additional components would direct Unichain sequencer fees into the same burn mechanism and introduce new auction-based systems designed to internalize MEV while improving liquidity provider returns.

Beyond fee activation, the proposal formalizes closer operational alignment between Uniswap Labs, the Uniswap Foundation and on-chain governance. Under the plan, Labs would focus on protocol development and growth, while removing fees from its interface, wallet, and API. Development and ecosystem initiatives would be funded through a governance-approved growth budget.

Although Uniswap governance has debated activating protocol fees for years, previous efforts to do so have stalled amid regulatory uncertainty and disagreements over incentive design. The opening of formal on-chain voting appears to have catalyzed renewed market interest, with traders positioning around the possibility of direct value accrual tied to Uniswap’s dominant trading volumes.

Early voting data showed overwhelming support for the proposal, though the vote remains open until 6:14 p.m. UTC on Dec. 25. While the outcome is not yet final, the timing of UNI’s rally suggests the market is responding to the start of the governance process itself and the prospect of a structural shift in how value flows back to UNI holders.