Uniswap Faces Governance Issues as Top Delegate Quits in Distress

Why One of Uniswap DAO's Most Outspoken Members Decided to Leave His Positions in Desperation

The situation highlights the difficulty of achieving a balance of interests in DeFi protocols.

Posted by Tim Craig | Edited by: Aoyon Ashraf Updated: May 7, 2025 3:25 pm Published: May 7, 2025 3:25 pm

Key points:

• One of the key members of the Uniswap DAO, Pepo, has left, raising concerns about the disproportionate power of other stakeholders, especially the Uniswap Foundation.
• The Uniswap Foundation, which received $165 million from the DAO, has been criticized for putting its own interests above those of the DAO and for a lack of transparency.
• Despite efforts to improve communication, some delegates feel that important decisions are being made behind closed doors, which undermines the DAO's decentralized governance principles.

One prominent member of the Uniswap DAO left the project on Monday in frustration, fearing that other interested parties have too much influence over the decentralized protocol.

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Pepo, an anonymous delegate trusted by other token holders to represent their interests, has been involved in Uniswap governance since 2023. He held 455,000 UNI tokens, making him one of the 20 most influential delegates.

The reason for his departure? Other organizations involved in Uniswap governance, most notably the Uniswap Foundation, ignored the opinions of DAO members and were closed to feedback, Pepo said in a post to X.

“The Foundation’s actions appeared to favor isolation over cooperation, which could negatively impact Uniswap,” Pepo argued.

Devin Walsh, director of the Uniswap Foundation, did not comment directly to CoinDesk when asked about the claims. However, she has denied the allegations on social media.

“Delegates’ participation is critical to the success of the Uniswap ecosystem,” she noted in X. “The Uniswap Foundation takes their feedback seriously.”

According to DefiLlama data, Uniswap is the largest decentralized exchange with deposits of about $4 billion, down 60% from its peak of about $10 billion in total funds locked in 2021-2022 .

Like many DeFi prot

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