Popular decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) Uniswap is facing flak from the crypto community after the company announced it will begin charging trading fees on certain crypto tokens. The irony is thick because the platform already levies a “protocol fee” that’s managed by governance voters.
Uniswap Labs to levy ‘interface fee’ on trades involving ETH, USDC, and other tokens
Uniswap Labs — the company behind the Uniswap protocol — has attempted to calm the jittery platform users, saying the move will help the company “sustainably fund our operations.”
In a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Uniswap’s inventor and Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams wrote, “This interface fee is one of the lowest in the industry, and it will allow us to continue to research, develop, build, ship, improve and expand crypto and DeFi.”
Starting Tuesday, Uniswap Labs will impose a 0.15% “interface fee” on trades involving ETH, USDC, WETH, USDT, DAI, WBTC, agEUR, GUSD, LUSD, EUROC, the company said. However, swaps from one stablecoin to another and trade between ether and wrapped ether are exempt from the tax. It’s also worth noting that only crypto swaps originating through Uniswap Labs’ interface will be taxed.
Uniswap Labs is not the only one charging fees on trades involving crypto tokens. Leading crypto wallet MetaMask also imposes a tax on crypto swaps. Although Uniswap fees are small in comparison to MetaMask’s 0.85%, it can still be a sore point on larger transactions.
Crypto community outraged over Uniswap’s decision
So it doesn’t even come as a surprise that Uniswap Labs’ decision to charge a fee on select crypto swaps has drawn sharp criticism from the crypto community. Autism Capital has accused the company of “neglecting” holders of UNI, Uniswap’s governance token.
“Uniswap introduces a 0.15% fee to use their front-end UX that goes directly into their pockets — absolutely neglecting all the holders of their useless “governance token” UNI that *still* hasn’t turned on a fee switch to provide one scrap of value to those tricked into buying it.”
Autism Capital
Crypto YouTuber “youfriendSOMMI” echoed similar sentiments, and suggested that Uniswap could soon roll out KYC features. Meanwhile, Crypto investor Scott Melker said the news about Uniswap potentially introducing KYC measures has sparked a debate about the future of decentralized finance (DeFi).
UNI prices take a beating
With holders of UNI — Uniswap’s native token — disappointed following the swap fees announcement, UNI prices have fallen more than 1% since yesterday. In fact, UNI prices have crashed almost 9% over the last fortnight.