Uniswap is pushing its protocol fee system to three more blockchains. A governance proposal posted on May 16 seeks to activate fee collection and UNI token burning on BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, bringing the total number of chains with live protocol fees to 13.
The move is part of a phased rollout that started on Ethereum mainnet in late December 2025. Since then, fees have already gone live on nine additional chains including Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, Soneium, X Layer, Worldchain, and Zora. The latest expansion targets three of the most active alternative networks in DeFi.
How the fee structure works
Protocol fees on the new chains are set at 1/5 of the pool fee. In English: if a liquidity pool charges a 0.30% swap fee, the protocol takes 0.06% off the top. That ratio mirrors what’s already running on the other integrated chains.
Fees are routed into what Uniswap calls TokenJars on each respective chain. From there, the collected UNI tokens get bridged back to Ethereum mainnet and sent to the 0xdead address, a well-known burn address that permanently removes tokens from circulation.
The Celo activation is actually a fix. A prior governance proposal, numbered #94, contained a configuration error that prevented fees from going live on the network. This new proposal corrects that mistake while simultaneously onboarding BNB Chain and Polygon with fresh TokenJar infrastructure.
Governance moved fast on this one
The proposal bypassed the usual Request for Comment stage entirely. Under a framework called UNIfication, the expansion qualified for an expedited governance process: a five-day Snapshot vote followed by an onchain vote. No prolonged debate period required.
Community response has been strongly supportive during the Snapshot voting process.
What this means for investors and traders
For liquidity providers on BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, the 1/5 fee take means a slightly smaller share of swap fees flowing to their pockets. On a pool with a 0.30% fee, LPs would receive 0.24% instead of the full amount.
The cross-chain bridging component introduces its own set of risks. Bridge exploits have been among the most costly attack vectors in DeFi history. While the TokenJar and bridging architecture has been operating on other chains without incident, every new chain integration expands the attack surface.