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Key Takeaways
What is the UNIfication proposal, and why did it pump UNI’s price?
UNIfication activates protocol fees for the first time in Uniswap’s five-year history. This deflationary mechanism drove a 44% price surge.
Why are analysts calling this whale activity suspicious?
A 2020-era whale with wallets seeded from Uniswap’s original investor contract dumped $75 million in UNI precisely during the surge following the proposal announcement.
Uniswap’s $UNI token surged 44% in 24 hours after founder Hayden Adams unveiled the “UNIfication” proposal on 10 November.
The ambitious plan activates protocol fees, burns 100 million tokens retroactively, and merges Uniswap Labs with the Foundation.
However, analysis reveals that a 2020-era whale dumped $75 million in UNI into Coinbase during the proposal hype.
The Uniswap whale knew too much?
Bubblemaps data exposes the coordinated exit. The whale controls four wallets seeded in 2020 from Uniswap’s original investor contract.
These wallets funneled 36 million UNI tokens through a single Coinbase deposit address. The entity has already moved $200 million to exchanges in 2025 alone.
On 14 May, the whale sold 12 million tokens. On 10 November, hours before Adams’ announcement, another 9 million hit the market.
Then, perfectly synchronized with the surge following the proposal drop, the final $75 million blast landed.
More insiders rush for the exit
Lookonchain identified additional suspicious movements. A whale wallet transferred 2.8 million UNI to Coinbase Prime minutes after the proposal went public.
Another long-term holder offloaded 1.7 million tokens ($15 million) to Binance, accepting a $1.45 million loss to cash out at the peak.
The crypto community sounded alarms across X. “Whales pump UNI and retail lines up to get dumped,” warned an X user.
Another added bluntly: “This isn’t accumulation. It’s distribution disguised as a bull run.” Another called it “the perfect narrative to exit on.”
What UNIfication actually does
The proposal fundamentally reshapes Uniswap’s economics. For five years, the protocol generated billions in fees without rewarding token holders.
UNIfication changes that by capturing 16.7-25% of liquidity provider fees on v3 pools and 0.05% on v2. All proceeds burn UNI tokens.
The plan executes a one-time burn of 100 million tokens from the treasury. Monthly burns could reach $38 million based on current volume.
Uniswap v4 introduces “aggregator hooks” to capture external revenue, while Protocol Fee Discount Auctions let users bid for fee-free trading windows.
Distribution disguised as growth
Trading volume surged over 500% to $4 billion, propelling UNI to $9 and a $5.6 billion market capitalization.
However, the whale cluster’s $200 million in exchange deposits far exceeds retail buying pressure. This pattern looks less like organic adoption and more like orchestrated extraction.
Critics argue that the 16.7% fee structure poses a potential “death spiral” for liquidity providers. Concerns about centralization grow around the Labs-Foundation merger, led by a five-person board headed by Adams.
The proposal creates value for token holders, but insiders appear to be the first ones cashing out.