Uniswap Foundation Shares Balance Sheet as Fee Vote Nears

The Uniswap Foundation – the nonprofit behind Uniswap – recently shared a look at its financials days before the community moves to vote to enable and distribute fees autonomously.

According to a balance sheet shared by the Foundation, at the end of the first quarter it held $41.41 million in fiat and stablecoins, along with 730,000 UNI tokens. The fiat and stablecoins are designated for grant commitments and operational activities, while the UNI tokens are reserved for employee awards.

Later this week, UNI token holders will vote for a new fee mechanism that would shift some rewards away from the decentralized exchange’s liquidity providers to its token holders instead.

If approved – and prior snapshot polls show it likely will be – the proposal will transfer control of the mainnet UniswapV3Factory to a new V3FactoryOwner contract. The new fee distribution plan will be activated in a second vote that hasn’t yet been scheduled.

This comes as the Uniswap Foundation prepares to fight the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Recently, the SEC issued the Foundation a Wells notice, signaling that it intends to recommend enforcement action against it in the future.

The Wells Notice targets Uniswap’s UNI and LP tokens, arguing they are investment contracts and alleging that they violating securities laws. Uniswap Labs disputes this, and says the SEC lacks jurisdiction, arguing LP tokens are merely bookkeeping devices.

Uniswap also argues that it doesn’t meet the SEC’s own definition of an exchange.