Uniswap Proposal Aims to Delegate 10 Million UNI to Underrepresented Delegates

According to CryptoPotato, a proposal is currently in the 'temperature check' phase that seeks to delegate 10 million UNI tokens from Uniswap's DAO treasury to underrepresented delegates. The top four candidates would receive up to 2.5 million UNI each, while the remaining tokens would be equally delegated to other candidates. If the proposal passes an on-chain vote, the tokens would not be tradeable and would only be used by the delegates for voting purposes, increasing their say in governance proposals. Uniswap's DAO allows token holders to either vote themselves or delegate their voting power to another entity. There are over 30 delegates with at least 2.5 million delegated votes, which is the level at which delegates are considered 'underrepresented.' StableLab, the governance service provider that made the delegation proposal, would also receive governance tokens if the proposal passes. The proposal noted that many top delegates with significant voting power have less than a 50% vote participation rate, and some even as low as 10% or 0%. Uniswap governance has faced criticism in the past due to voting being dominated by a few UNI whales, such as a16z, Dharma, and Gauntlet. The current system remains centralized in the hands of these large token holders, leaving smaller delegates with little chance to have their votes matter. Several proposals have been passed in previous years due to the voting power of just a single entity. In 2020, Dharma proposed dropping the quorum threshold from 40 million UNI, or 4% of the total, to 3%, giving it even more voting power. Uniswap prices have surged over the past 24 hours, though it is unclear if this is directly related to the proposal. UNI has climbed from $5.25 to hit an intraday and 14-week high of $6.26 during the Thursday morning Asian trading session, currently up 18% on the day, outperforming the rest of the crypto markets. The DeFi exchange token has made 42% over the past month as crypto markets recover, but UNI remains down 86% from its May 2021 all-time high of $44.92.