Major decentralized exchange Uniswap has become the subject of criticism from a number of industry watchers, who argue that the DEX’s native token UNI fails to provide value for token holders.

While Uniswap clocked a record quarterly trading volume of more than $270 billion, UNI is currently trading at around $8.14, which is 81% below its all-time high last seen four years ago. 

Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams said it was “funny to see people bear post Uniswap” when annual volumes were on track to surpass $1 trillion for the first time.

“We’re not bear posting Uniswap. We’re bear posting UNI,” Arca CIO Jeff Dorman responded, calling the token “complete nonsense” in today’s environment. 

“Everything you and your VCs stand for is irrelevant. Turn on revenues & buybacks, or don’t bother having a token.”

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

“UNI is a prime example of the token-equity conflict of interest problem in crypto,” commented Chainlink community liaison Zach Rynes.

The debate around UNI comes after a proposal to activate a “fee switch” to share protocol fees with UNI holders failed to pass several times. Last year, the Uniswap Foundation said a stakeholder had raised an issue relating to its work in that area, and opted to delay the fee switch vote.

Paradigm Partner Dan Robinson suggested it was a “large VC” bullying the governance process to further their own agenda. Many in the crypto community believed the VC in question was a16z.

a16z Crypto has been actively promoting the adoption of the Decentralized Unincorporated Non-Profit Association (DUNA) structure as an industry standard for DAOs.

Last month, the Uniswap Foundation proposed adopting the DUNA structure to lay the groundwork for its fee switch proposal.