Uniswap DAO Considers Investing 3 Million UNI in DEX Ekubo

Summary

Uniswap DAO is currently polling the community about investing 3 million UNI (worth approximately $12 million) to acquire a 20% stake in Ekubo, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Starknet platform.

Key Highlights

• Investment Proposal: Uniswap DAO is considering investing 3 million UNI tokens to acquire 20% equity in Ekubo. The investment is valued at $12 million.

• Ekubo’s Vision: Moody Salem, the founder of Ekubo, stated that this investment is a crucial step in decentralizing the development of the Uniswap protocol and integrating Ekubo into the core development team.

• Usage of Funds: If the proposal passes, the 3 million UNI tokens will be used to fund Ekubo’s operations and contribute to Uniswap’s ecosystem. Ekubo aims to provide public goods for the Starknet ecosystem, including standard token contracts, governance, and incentivizing the use of the Cairo programming language. This investment will help expand Starknet and enhance its competitiveness with other layer-2 solutions.

• Governance Token: Ekubo plans to launch a governance token within a month after the proposal is approved. Uniswap DAO’s treasury will receive 20% of the total token supply, with the remainder controlled by Ekubo. The token will be deployed on Starknet. The proposal also seeks to update Uniswap's license to grant Ekubo unlimited use of Uniswap v4.
• Background: Moody Salem, a former lead engineer and the fifth employee of Uniswap, now works for Ekubo. Ekubo currently manages $2.5 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.

Community Reactions: The proposal has sparked mixed reactions. Doo Wan Nam, co-founder of StableLab, emphasized the need for Uniswap to carefully consider its governance roles and responsibilities if the proposal passes.

Comment by Doo Wan Nam, co-founder of StableLabMarket maker Wintermute opposed the proposal, arguing that valuing the token at $60 million is unreasonable. Another market maker, Keyrock, also expressed opposition, citing concerns over the rushed proposal process and advocating for a more cautious investment approach, ideally over 2-3 weeks.

Polling Process: The poll is being conducted on the Snapshot platform. As of the latest update, 63% of the votes (representing 21 million UNI) are in favor, while 37% (representing 12 million UNI) are against. Five holders have contributed to 97% of the supportive votes.

Snapshot poll results as of 08:55 AM, October 30, 2023

Recent Uniswap Controversy

In addition to the investment proposal, Uniswap recently faced backlash for introducing a "interface fee" of 0.15%. The platform announced that it would charge users this fee for certain token swap transactions, excluding stablecoin swaps.