Uniswap Faces UNI Token Backlash Over ‘Equity Conflict’

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🧨 UNI token called “nonsense” despite record Uniswap volume

• 🤑 FTX creditors score another $1.6B payout

• 🕷️ Scattered Spider hackers hit Crypto.com in 2023 breach

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Crypto Community Takes Aim at Uniswap for UNI ‘Token-Equity Conflict of Interest’

Major decentralized exchange Uniswap has become the subject of criticism from a number of industry watchers, who argue that the DEX’s native token UNI fails to provide value for token holders.

While Uniswap clocked a record quarterly trading volume of more than $270 billion, UNI is currently trading at around $8.14, which is 81% below its all-time high last seen four years ago. 

Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams said it was “funny to see people bear post Uniswap” when annual volumes were on track to surpass $1 trillion for the first time.

“We’re not bear posting Uniswap. We’re bear posting UNI,” Arca CIO Jeff Dorman responded, calling the token “complete nonsense” in today’s environment. 

“Everything you and your VCs stand for is irrelevant. Turn on revenues & buybacks, or don’t bother having a token.”

“UNI is a prime example of the token-equity conflict of interest problem in crypto,” commented Chainlink community liaison Zach Rynes.

The debate around UNI comes after a proposal to activate a “fee switch” to share protocol fees with UNI holders failed to pass several times. Last year, the Uniswap Foundation said a stakeholder had raised an issue relating to its work in that area, and opted to delay the fee switch vote.

Paradigm Partner Dan Robinson suggested it was a “large VC” bullying the governance process to further their own agenda. Many in the crypto community believed the VC in question was a16z.

a16z Crypto has been actively promoting the adoption of the Decentralized Unincorporated Non-Profit Association (DUNA) structure as an industry standard for DAOs.

Last month, the Uniswap Foundation proposed adopting the DUNA structure to lay the groundwork for its fee switch proposal. 

FTX to Pay Another $1.6B to Creditors in Third Distribution

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX will pay out an additional $1.6 billion to creditors in its third major distribution, set to begin on Sept. 30, according to a Friday announcement.

U.S. creditors, who fall under Class 5B, will receive a 40% payout in this round, bringing their cumulative recovery to 95% of their claims since FTX's collapse.

Meanwhile, international customers, who sit in Class 5A, are set to receive an additional 6%, reaching a total of 78% recovery.

BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer will facilitate the payments, with funds expected in claimant accounts within one to three business days after Sept. 30, provided pre-distribution verification steps were completed.

It marks the third payout since FTX’s bankruptcy, taking total distributions to over $8 billion. Still, although $16.5 billion has been earmarked for distributions, some creditors are unhappy with the bankruptcy estate using Nov. 2022 prices for crypto assets to determine their payout value.

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Scattered Spider Crypto.com Breach Exposed Users’ Personal Data: Report

Crypto.com suffered a security breach in 2023 linked to the Scattered Spider hacking group, which exposed personal information of a small number of users, a Bloomberg investigation revealed.

The attack involved social engineering tactics where teenage hackers, including an 18-year-old named Noah Urban, tricked Crypto.com employees into handing over login credentials.

“I was a victim of this particular breach. I reported to them that their system has been breached because everyone around me who use crypto [.]com has been receiving unauthorized transactions, said one X user @0XMerkleTree.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek addressed reports that the breach in question had been previously undisclosed by the crypto exchange, saying that it was reported in an NMLS Notice of Data Security incident filing in 2023.

“The incident was contained within hours, no customer funds were accessed or ever at risk, and impacted an extremely limited number of our users' partial PII [personally identifiable information],” said Marszalek.

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• ⚠️ Over $1.5 billion in leveraged long positions across crypto were liquidated in a 24-hour span, causing steep losses in smaller tokens and dragging the total crypto market cap below $4 trillion.

• 🇪🇺 EU finance ministers reached a deal to move forward with the digital euro project, agreeing on policy guardrails and oversight roles, though the actual launch may still be years away due to ongoing debates and legislative hurdles.

• 🚗 Arthur Hayes sold all his HYPE tokens for a reported $823,000 profit just weeks after hyping the token’s long-term potential, saying he needed cash to put down a deposit on a Ferrari 849 Testarossa.

• 💸 Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum’s most meaningful use could come from “low-risk” decentralized finance like savings and lending, arguing that these now-secure tools could become Ethereum’s financial backbone and fuel broader innovation such as stablecoins tied to inflation and trust-based lending.

• ⚠️ Solana’s Anatoly Yakovenko urged the Bitcoin network to upgrade its cryptography before 2030 to guard against future quantum threats, warning that key-breaking computers could emerge within five years, though Bitcoin experts mostly brushed off the urgency.

• 🗳️ Sky, the DeFi protocol formerly known as MakerDAO, launched a vote to penalize users who delay switching from MKR to its new governance token SKY, introducing a fee starting at 1% and rising quarterly unless swapped before Monday.

• 🏛️ The U.S. Treasury began crafting detailed stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act, opening a short comment period to gather public input on everything from anti-money laundering to tax policy and issuer restrictions.

• 🚗 Tether’s CEO revealed that Toyota, Yamaha, and BYD now take USDT payments in Bolivia, where crypto transactions hit $430 million in one year after a ban was lifted, surging over 600% as stablecoins gain ground in emerging economies.

• 📈 BitGo filed to go public on the NYSE under the ticker BTGO after earning $4.2 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025, though profits shrank as it managed $90 billion in crypto assets mostly concentrated in five tokens.

• 🤝 YZi Labs, the $10 billion family office tied to former Binance CEO CZ, expanded its investment in Ethena Labs as the firm aims to grow its synthetic dollar USDe on the BNB Chain and strengthen institutional partnerships.

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