YFI Founder Puts Himself Forward for Uniswap (UNI) Delegation Duties

The founder of the hugely popular yEARN Finance protocol identified various issues with Uniswap that the platform’s governance could address. These include a reevaluation of the UNI token’s distribution and tokenomics, as well providing support for other projects that may provide value to the exchange platform.

One of DeFi’s Biggest Names Interested in Uniswap Community Governance

One of the biggest stories to break in the world of cryptocurrency this week was the launch of the UNI token. On Sept. 16, UNI tokens were distributed to Ethereum wallets that had interacted with the popular automated market making platform before Sept. 1. Initially, the price of UNI tokens declined as those claiming the free airdrop cashed out. Since then, buying pressure has moved the price up aggressively. At their highest point during the few days since launch, the 400 UNI tokens that previous platform users received were worth more than $3,400. At the time of writing, the current UNI market cap is over $780 million. The newly launched token will provide additional incentives to those providing liquidity on Uniswap. It will also allow holders to participate in the platform’s governance. According to a Uniswap blog post detailing the launch, users can delegate their tokens to others so that they meet the required percentage of the total supply needed to submit governance proposals. Those submitting proposals will need a total of 1% of the total supply of 1 billion tokens. One of those interested in becoming a Uniswap governance delegate is Andre Cronje. The yEARN Finance founder tweeted as such earlier Saturday:

I would like to signal my intent to be a @UniswapProtocol delegate

I will build tooling to facilitate delegation, off-chain voting, and on-chain enforcement

You can delegate via etherscan; https://t.co/32rV3h1ZRO

Delegate to 0x2D407dDb06311396fE14D4b49da5F0471447d45C pic.twitter.com/bUIuGoegMx

— Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech) September 19, 2020

As part of the above thread, Cronje stated that he did not think the platform should rush to provide incentives to liquidity pools. He added that he believes there are other opportunities to improve the protocol. These include a reevaluation of UNI’s tokenomics and distribution, along with efforts to bring stablecoins like DAI and sUSD back to their pegged values.

Cronje’s Delegation Pitch Prompts Increased UNI Buying Pressure

Having a name as big as Cronje’s is to the DeFi niche taking an interest in serving as a Uniswap delegate appears to have further excited the market. At around the time of his tweet, UNI traded at around $6.40. The price went on a short-lived run following his announcement, topping at just over $7.30. It has since pulled back slightly to $7. Cronje is best known for his work on the yEARN Finance protocol. The automated yield farming optimizer grabbed the attention of the DeFi sector earlier this summer. Cronje inspired the cryptocurrency industry by electing to launch the YFI token without a pre-mine or any reward for himself. This “fair launch” subsequently inspired other teams to experiment with different token distribution models — such as that employed by Uniswap itself. The YFI price shot from less than $700 at launch to more than $42,000 by Sept. 13. The token’s stellar performance is thanks to both community interest in YFI and its incredibly low circulating supply of 30,000. Judging by engagement on Cronje’s Twitter post, the developer will be a popular candidate for delegation duties. If he is delegated enough tokens, it should be interesting to see the direction the popular developer attempts to steer Uniswap.