Uniswap burns record 134,000 UNI as founder backs DeFi and Ethereum

Uniswap on Ethereum recorded its largest single-day UNI token burn under the UNIfication mechanism, with 134,000 tokens removed from circulation, as founder Hayden Adams publicly backed DeFi and Ethereum amid a prolonged market downturn.

"Extremely bullish on DeFi and Ethereum," Adams said on X on June 5, comparing current conditions to the 2018 bear market that preceded Uniswap's launch. "Ethereum sentiment was at all time lows then too. Builders used that period to create products that drove the DeFi summer of 2020."

The burn mechanism, approved by Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation in late 2025, collects protocol fees in TokenJar contracts. Users claiming those fees must burn an equivalent value of UNI through the Firepit contract, with tokens sent to Ethereum's 0xdead address permanently. When the UNIfication proposal was announced, UNI surged from $4.95 to $9.25 within a week, according to figures cited in the proposal.

Uniswap holds $2.86 billion in total value locked across more than 40 chains, with Ethereum accounting for $1.96 billion, Base at $416 million and Arbitrum at $198 million, DefiLlama data shows. Cumulative fees since launch reached $5.59 billion, though only $14.15 million has flowed to UNI holders through the burn mechanism. Annualized fees currently run at roughly $882 million.

In May, governance Proposal 96 expanded fee collection and UNI burns to BNB Chain, Polygon and Celo, bringing the total number of chains using the mechanism to 11. Uniswap Labs also released four product updates — in-app wallets, cross-chain swaps, portfolio tracking and multichain portfolio views — all carrying zero interface fees on swaps. Internal research showed 49.9% of new traders on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base who swapped in 2026 made their first-ever swap on Uniswap.

Despite the record burn and product rollout, UNI trades at $2.47, more than 92% below its May 2021 all-time high of $44.97. The token's market capitalization stands at $1.54 billion with 622.71 million tokens in circulating supply. Adams' comments tie the protocol's latest activity to a longer building cycle, suggesting the current downturn may mirror the 2018 period that ultimately produced the infrastructure for DeFi's next expansion.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.