Uniswap has surpassed Bitcoin in terms of fees paid by crypto traders for over a week, with the DEX taking the lead on February 14th. According to Cryptofees data, Uniswap generated approximately $1.9 million in fees on February 25th, exceeding Bitcoin's $1.2 million on the same day. This trend has persisted since mid-month, with Uniswap averaging $2.1 million in fees over the past week, compared to Bitcoin's $1.4 million.

Ethereum remains the overall leader in transaction fees, with the blockchain network generating $10.6 million in fees in the past day and an average of $13 million per day over the past week. Uniswap's substantial fees coincide with a recent proposal by the DEX Foundation to introduce a fee reward mechanism for UNI token holders.

As the largest DeFi DEX platform, Uniswap handles approximately 30% of total trades in the decentralized finance sector, according to DeFillama data. All fees generated by Uniswap go to liquidity providers (LPs) who supply assets to the platform. However, the proposed upgrade aims to allocate protocol fees among staked and delegated UNI token holders to enhance governance participation and decentralization.

Erin Koen, Uniswap Foundation’s governance lead, highlighted the potential of this move to strengthen the protocol’s resilience. Devin Walsh, the Foundation’s executive director, emphasized how the upgrade will fortify Uniswap’s governance and ensure its long-term sustainability. The proposal is pending preliminary and final on-chain votes before implementation.

In response to these developments, the UNI token has surged approximately 40% over the past week to $10.59, based on CryptoSlate’s data.