Understand Uniswap's Major Upgrade in 3 Minutes: UNI Token Enters a New Chapter of Value

From "Governance Token" to "Value Asset" Transformation

Uniswap officially launches the "UNIfication" upgrade plan, which primarily upgrades UNI from a governance token to a deflationary token backed by real value. This upgrade directly links UNI's value to the actual usage of the protocol for the first time.

Core Transformation: Token Value Restructuring

From Governance Rights to Value Capture

· UNI is no longer just a voting tool but a value asset capable of capturing the protocol's actual revenue
· All protocol income will be used to buy back and burn UNI, creating a continuous deflationary effect
· A one-time burn of 100 million UNI to compensate for the "value gap" during the period without fee collection

Four Major Revenue Streams Drive Value Growth

1. Trading Protocol Fees

· Enable fee collection in versions v2/v3/v4 of the protocol
· Revenue scales linearly with trading volume

2. Layer 2 Network Income

· All Sequencer revenue from Unichain is used to burn UNI
· Development of L2 networks directly enhances UNI's scarcity

3. MEV Value Recovery

· Recover MEV profits through "protocol fee discount auctions"
· Return value previously taken by arbitrageurs back to the protocol

4. Aggregator Service Fees

· Version 4 aggregators charge fees to external liquidity sources
· Allow UNI to capture value from cross-chain transaction routing

Building a Value Growth Flywheel

Positive Feedback Loop:
More usage → More revenue generated → Accelerated UNI burns → Increased scarcity → Attract more users and developers → Further expand usage scale

Supporting Organizational Changes:

· Uniswap Labs ceases front-end fees and merges the Foundation into Labs
· Focus shifts from "product development" to "protocol ecosystem building"
· All activities revolve around "increasing usage → increasing burns"

This reform enables all ecosystem participants—developers, liquidity providers, users, and market makers—to collaborate and win under a unified value system, jointly promoting the long-term sustainable development of the protocol.