Uniswap Greenlights Expansion to BNB Chain via Wormhole Bridge
Despite objections from a16z, the proposal to deploy Uniswap on BNB Chain using the Wormhole bridge has passed with an overwhelming majority.
On the evening of February 10, the community vote on Uniswap’s proposal to launch the DEX on BNB Chain concluded with strong support.
Specifically, 65.89% of the total 55.88 million UNI votes favored deploying Uniswap v3 on BNB Chain, utilizing Wormhole’s cross-chain solution. The list of supporters includes major names like ConsenSys (7 million UNI), Compound founder Robert Leshner (5.76 million UNI), and GFX Labs (4.92 million UNI).
On the flip side, the largest opposing entity, a16z, used all of its 15 million UNI tokens to vote against the proposal. This marks the first time in history that a16z has used its entire UNI holding for governance voting. According to reports, a16z controls 40 million UNI, but has delegated 25 million to other organizations.
a16z's opposition stems from its preference for the LayerZero cross-chain solution over Wormhole, which is backed by rival investment firm Jump Crypto.
Read more: a16z Dominates Uniswap Vote – CZ Binance Responds
Despite the opposition, the proposal has been approved, and Uniswap will proceed with its deployment on BNB Chain using Wormhole as the cross-chain bridge.
Uniswap has been actively expanding beyond its Ethereum roots to newer platforms such as Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Celo, and most recently, Boba Network and BNB Chain.
The urgency for this expansion is driven by the impending expiration of Uniswap v3's intellectual property rights on April 1, compelling the project to quickly capture market share on other major chains and prevent competitors like PancakeSwap on BNB Chain from replicating its model.
According to DeFiLlama data, Uniswap is the largest DEX in the crypto industry with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.29 billion, seven times higher than its nearest competitor, PancakeSwap. Additionally, its Total Value Locked (TVL) is 1.5 times greater than the leading DEX on BNB Chain.
