The community of leading decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) Uniswap has approved two proposals aimed at stimulating the growth of its own Unichain network and the fourth version of the protocol (Uniswap V4). The initiative, called Uniswap Unleashed, proposes a new grant program and liquidity incentives.

Voting on the community forum

What else is known? To implement the initiative, the Uniswap Foundation NPO asked the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Uniswap for $95.4 million in grants, $45 million to stimulate liquidity to attract users and developers, and $25.1 million to support operations for two years. The proposals were supported by more than 80% of holders of the native UNI token.

The implementation of Uniswap Unleashed could pave the way for a long-standing community goal: shifting a portion of the protocol’s revenue from liquidity providers (LPs) to UNI holders. Uniswap currently generates over $1 billion in annual trading fee revenue.

This revenue sharing proposal would see the Uniswap Foundation transition from an NPO to a legal entity to clarify its legal status and the ability to enter into contracts with other protocols.

UNI is ranked 35th overall by cryptocurrency market cap with $4.1 billion and is trading at $6.81, up 0.7% in 24 hours. Weekly growth was 16%.

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has become the world's third largest holder of bitcoin after the US and the UK. The hacker group Lazarus, which is linked to the DPRK government, holds 13,580 bitcoins worth £886 million pounds (about $1.14 billion), The New York Times reports.

Arkham Intelligence, a US company that uses artificial intelligence to identify owners of anonymous cryptocurrency assets, notes that Pyongyang has significantly increased its holdings after a record theft last month. According to Wu Blockchain, the increase occurred after an attack on the Bybit crypto exchange, in which hackers converted stolen Ethereum into Bitcoin.

North Korea has overtaken El Salvador with 6,117 coins and Bhutan with 10,635 BTC in Bitcoin reserves. Only the United States with 198,109 bitcoins and the United Kingdom with 61,245 coins remain ahead of the DPRK. At the same time, the EU is not yet interested in reserves consisting of cryptocurrencies, ECB President Christine Lagarde noted at the end of January.

Unlike El Salvador, which has officially adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, North Korea uses cryptocurrency to circumvent international sanctions. Cryptocurrency market experts link the activity of North Korean hackers to the regime's attempts to finance state programs.

The US and UK governments received their bitcoins by confiscating funds belonging to criminals.

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Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said the purchase brought the firm's Bitcoin holdings to 3,200 BTC, worth more than $266 million. Inspired by the strategy of US company Strategy, Metaplanet has bet on Bitcoin as a key reserve asset, which has already brought the company significant results, Gerovich said.

Since April 2024, when the Japanese company adopted the “bitcoin standard,” Metaplanet has been acquiring BTC at an average price of $82,100 per coin. As of March 18, these assets have provided a return of 60.8% since the beginning of the year, which has brought the company into the top 10 public holders of bitcoin in the world. Metaplanet’s market capitalization has grown by 7,000% in a year, and the number of shareholders has exceeded 50 thousand.

The head of Metaplanet said that the company's plans for 2025-2026 include increasing the bitcoin portfolio to 10 thousand coins by the end of 2025 and 21 thousand by the end of 2026. To do this, Metaplanet intends to raise about $750 million by selling 21 million shares of the company, which will be the largest capital raising for the purchase of bitcoins in Asia. In addition, the company is considering listing on American exchanges such as NYSE and Nasdaq to expand the availability of its shares to global investors.

Recently, Strategy, founded by businessman Michael Saylor, reported the purchase of 130 bitcoins for $10.7 million. According to the company's data, it currently holds 499,226 bitcoins. This is approximately 2.52% of the entire supply of the first cryptocurrency by capitalization. Strategy spent $33.1 billion on the purchase of bitcoins at an average price of $66,360 per coin.

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