ConsenSys adds 7.03M votes to Uniswap BNB Chain migration proposal amid VC battle

Web3 infrastructure developer ConsenSys, the maker of the popular MetaMask digital wallet, has cast 7.03 million votes in favor of a proposal that would see decentralized exchange Uniswap’s v3 protocol deployed on BNB Chain, according to data from Tally. The votes are denominated by the number of underlying UNI owned by ConsenSys, which is worth an estimated $47.5 million. At the time of writing, 77.56% of participants were in favor of the proposal, with 22.07% against it. The week-long voting process will close on Feb. 10.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz cast a vote against the proposal. A16z, which reportedly holds 55 million UNI tokens, voted 15 million UNI against the move due to its reliance on the Wormhole bridge and instead supported using LayerZero as the interoperability protocol. LayerZero Labs is part of a16z’s portfolio and raised $135 million in a funding round in March, with a $1 billion valuation.

In January 2022, Wormhole suffered a major exploit resulting in the loss of $321 million worth of Wrapped Ether (wETH) tokens. Since then, Wormhole is now secured by 19 validators, has been audited 25-plus times by leading firms and has passed all security assessments.

A16z’s vote was in part controversial within the crypto community due to a voter turnout of less than 7% for the ongoing proposal, which still passed the necessary quorum. As a result, a16z was able to disproportionally influence the voting process with just 15 million UNI out of 762 million in UNI in circulation. Critics say that such measures disrupt the decentralized nature of Uniswap by concentrating voting power in VCs.

How can $UNI holders outside of a16z be sure there’s no conditions or other hidden influences on these outside groups from a16z or related parties?

Is everyone supposed to just take your word for it? pic.twitter.com/4uGLJOsnjK

— DefiMoon (@DefiMoon) February 7, 2023