UNI token holders approved a new foundation fund of $165.5 million, laying the groundwork for the "fee switch."

[UNI Token holders approve $165.5 million new foundation funding, laying the groundwork for the "fee switch"] On March 20, news emerged that the Uniswap community has voted to pass two governance proposals aimed at advancing the recently launched Unichain Layer 2 and Uniswap v4 protocol through new funding programs and other liquidity incentives. Notably, this governance decision lays the foundation for activating the long-promised "fee switch." The Uniswap Foundation stated on social media platform X that these two proposals are part of the "Uniswap Unleashed" initiative, aimed at expanding the Uniswap ecosystem and marking "the beginning of the next era for our community" by unlocking "new opportunities to build, grow, create, and capture value." According to the proposal, these liquidity incentives were created in collaboration with the Uniswap Foundation and the web3 risk management protocol Gauntlet, aimed at attracting new users through developer-centered activities and maintaining the ecosystem's growth. The Foundation requests an investment of $95.4 million into its funding budget, along with an additional $25.1 million for operational funds over the next two years. In another incentive proposal, the Foundation requests a budget of $45 million to support liquidity incentives. Gauntlet has deployed and configured an Aera treasury for the Uniswap Foundation on the mainnet, which will inject over 7.5 million UNI tokens, valued at approximately $52 million at current prices. The proposal states: "We recognize and appreciate the scale of this request. It reflects an investment in the success of the Uniswap protocol and Unichain, as well as an investment in the value of the Uniswap community." As for the fee switch, it will be implemented after the Uniswap Foundation decides to take necessary legal steps to allocate protocol fee revenue to governance members. The proposal states: "If passed, this step will pave the way for the potential introduction (or reintroduction) of governance proposals, allowing holders to earn protocol revenue."