PANews reported on May 5 that, according to DL News, Uniswap DAO is voting on a proposal to reclaim approximately 12.5 million UNI tokens (about $42 million) previously lent to delegates and the foundation. The vote will end on May 8, with approximately 53% in favor, 46% abstaining, and very few votes against.

Between 2022 and 2023, the DAO lent out the aforementioned governance tokens to increase governance participation. Uniswap Labs stated that current governance activity has significantly increased, with an average voting participation of approximately 75 million votes, and the mechanism has achieved its intended effect.

This buyout also aims to address the incentive mismatch issue—where some representatives still wield 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.

In addition, the Uniswap ecosystem has recently been advancing reforms including fee mechanisms, token buybacks and burns, and governance structure optimization, in order to further improve governance transparency and decentralization.