Uniswap (UNI) Recent Developments
Institutional Confidence Drives Grayscale Allocation Surge
Grayscale boosted its UNI allocation to 42.67% of its DeFi Fund as of January 8, 2026, marking a significant institutional endorsement. This represents an increase from approximately 25% in prior reports and reflects growing institutional confidence in Uniswap's role as DeFi infrastructure.
Price Performance and Technical Outlook
UNI is currently trading at approximately $4.87, down 2.68% over the past 24 hours and 8.66% over the past week. Technical analysis from January 19, 2026 indicates UNI traded at $4.99 after a -6.12% decline, with potential bounce targets to $5.85-$6.29 range if key $4.98 Bollinger Band support holds through month-end.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) momentum oscillator currently stands at 39.51, indicating the UNI market is in a neutral position.
UNIfication Proposal Drives Deflationary Mechanism
Uniswap has officially gone deflationary following the activation of the UNIfication proposal, which implemented its fee switch and burned $596 million worth of UNI. The protocol burned 100M UNI tokens post-governance vote, with protocol fees now funding deflationary burns via TokenJar contract, creating a direct value accrual mechanism absent since UNI's 2020 launch.
Growth Budget and Ecosystem Development
Uniswap governance is creating an annual growth budget of 20M UNI, distributed quarterly using a vesting contract starting January 1, 2026, to fund protocol growth and development, governed by a service provider agreement between Labs and DUNI.
Roadmap Milestones
Growth program targets for April 2026 include completing 6 Unichain protocols, 9 V4 hook integrations, and 4 embedded DeFi pilots. The Unichain Validator Network expansion is ongoing to distribute 65% of chain revenue to validators and stakers via UVN, while UniswapX optimization continues to enhance gasless swaps and cross-chain support.
Market Challenges
Despite significant protocol advancements for Uniswap, its token (UNI) experienced a considerable decline in 2025-2026, illustrating a disconnect between technological progress and market performance. Uniswap has faced increased competition from other DEXs such as PancakeSwap and Raydium, which have squeezed trading volumes and thinned out protocol fees.
Market Metrics
- Market Cap: $3.09 billion
- 24-Hour Volume: $168.3 million
- Available Supply: 634.6 million UNI
- Fully Diluted Valuation: $4.38 billion
Sources:
- https://coinmarketcap.com/cmc-ai/uniswap/latest-updates/
- https://blockchain.news/news/20260122-price-prediction-uni-targets-585-629-recovery-by-february
- https://coincodex.com/crypto/uniswap/price-prediction/
- https://blog.uniswap.org/unification
- https://crypto.news/uniswap-price-at-risk-as-bearish-double-top-forms-and-key-metric-decline/
- https://www.bitget.com/price/uniswap
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uniswap-unification-bullish-20m-uni-122252428.html