Uniswap Labs Implements Fee Increase to 0.25% on Mainnet and Layer 2 Swaps

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas is a contributing crypto writer for CryptoNews. He is a crypto and finance journalist with over four years of experience. Ruholamin has been featured in several high-profile crypto...

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April 14, 2024 04:00 EDT

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Uniswap Labs, the creator of the Uniswap protocol, has increased the fees charged to users for trading on its interface. The fee has been raised from 0.15% to 0.25% for most swaps conducted through the platform. The change was implemented on April 10, as indicated by blockchain data. 

The first fee assessed on a new token happened to be XEN. It happened just a few hours after Hayden's announcement of the Wells Noticehttps://t.co/SHpyMfVefQ pic.twitter.com/pviCxhZ1ij

— Dan Smith (@smyyguy) April 13, 2024

Certain Transactions Are Exempt From Fee

While the fee increase affects the majority of swaps, certain transactions are exempt from the fee. This includes trades involving stablecoins based on the same underlying currency and swaps between Ethereum (ETH) and Wrapped Ether (WETH). Users also have the option to bypass the fee by utilizing alternative interfaces to access the Uniswap protocol, rather than relying on the interface developed by Uniswap Labs. However, all other trades conducted on the mainnet and supported Layer 2 networks will be subject to the revised fee, which is determined by Uniswap Labs.Notably, the fee adjustment came shortly after Uniswap founder Hayden Adams disclosed that the company had received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), indicating a potential lawsuit.News first broke that the SEC was investigating Uniswap last summer.The SEC will presumably charge Uniswap Labs for acting as an unlicensed exchange and brokering unlicensed securities.During an interview with Bankless, Adams emphasized that Uniswap Labs functions as a software development shop and has been involved in the core development of the Uniswap protocol. 

“In addition, you know, we also have built an interface to the protocol that we run. But many, many other people have done the same.”

LIVE NOW – Uniswap vs. SEC

Crypto's OG darling exchange, @Uniswap is under attack after it received an enforcement notice on Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 from none other than Gensler's anti-crypto SEC

Uniswap’s CEO @haydenzadams joins us on the podcast to share what happened,… pic.twitter.com/Nm7LuLs3cQ

— Bankless (@BanklessHQ) April 12, 2024

Uniswap Rejects Proposal to Distribute Revenue to Token Holders

Last month, the Uniswap community rejected a governance proposal that aimed to introduce changes to the platform’s fee mechanism, including allowing revenue distribution to UNI token holders. The rejected proposal intended to grant the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) the authority to modify Uniswap’s fee mechanism, making way for the activation of a highly anticipated Uniswap “fee-switch.” This mechanism would have enabled the distribution of protocol revenue to UNI token holders.The activation of a fee-switch has been a sought-after goal since Uniswap distributed its UNI token to early adopters in 2020.Earlier this year, Uniswap launched a browser sidebar extension along with a limit order placement function and other tools to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions.The Uniswap Extension introduces a new way to interact with digital assets directly from a browser sidebar, streamlining the process of swapping digital assets, signing transactions, and trading.“Let’s be real — most wallet extensions are stuck in the past, with old UX paradigms and clunky onboarding flows,” said Uniswap on social media. “That’s why we built our own.”The update also included a Limit Orders feature, allowing users to automate buying or selling cryptocurrencies at predetermined prices.Meanwhile, UNI is currently trading at $7, down by more than 7% over the past day. The token is down by more than 35% over the past week and by 48% over the past month, according to data from CoinMarketCap.