Uniswap nearly lost the decentralized exchange (DEX) race to Sushiswap two weeks ago when the latter burst into the DeFi scene with an attractive moniker, shining new SUSHI tokens and immense rewards, and since the fall of Sushiswap, Uniswap seems to have learnt its lesson because someone else’s crisis is an opportunity. On September 17, Uniswap unleashed its UNI governance token and within the first hour, more than 13,000 Uniswap users have been quick to snatch these coveted tokens up.
Uniswap members get access to the cream of the crop as 60% of the total supply of UNI tokens have been exclusively allocated to them, and 15% has already been distributed to the users.
On why they have decided to launch its governance token now, Uniswap’s team said, “Having proven product-market fit for highly decentralized financial infrastructure with a platform that has thrived independently, Uniswap is now particularly well positioned for community-led growth, development, and self-sustainability. The introduction of UNI (ERC-20) serves this purpose, enabling shared community ownership and a vibrant, diverse, and dedicated governance system, which will actively guide the protocol towards the future.”
In addition to the 60% allocated for Uniswap users, the remaining out of the total 1 billion UNI supply will be shared between the Uniswap team (21.51% to current and future staff), investors (17.8%) and advisors (0.69%) over a vesting period of 4 years.
As centralized exchanges jump on the DeFi bandwagon, the UNI token is the most covetable one to date. Binance has already announced that it will be listing the UNI token, available for trading on September 17. Moreover, it will also be launching UNI/USDT perpetual contracts from September 18 onwards.
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