Decentralized crypto exchange PancakeSwap has implemented a new voting system called “Gauges” and sunsetted its vCAKE metric, replacing it with a new metric called “veCAKE.”

Your CAKE, Your Voice

Introducing Gauges Voting and veCAKE

More governance power
Control CAKE emissions
Deeper liquidity
Vote Incentives https://t.co/doaCruwMV6 pic.twitter.com/GxHGHdIG4J

— PancakeSwapEveryone's Favorite DEX (@PancakeSwap) November 22, 2023

The system allows governance tokenholders to vote for additional rewards to be distributed to particular pools, according to a Nov. 22 blog post.

PancakeSwap is the third-largest decentralized exchange (DEX) in terms of total value locked (TVL), according to blockchain analytics platform DefiLlama. At the time of publication, it had over $1.4 billion TVL. Its governance token, CAKE, is distributed as a reward to users who provide liquidity. It is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization, CakeDAO, which comprises all CAKE holders.

Under the new system, CAKE holders can vote on which pools will receive additional rewards every two weeks. However, to gain the ability to vote, they must lock their CAKE into a smart contract for a set period. The longer they lock their tokens up, the more voting power they receive. The announcement states that voting power is measured in a metric called “veCAKE,” which has replaced the previous “vCAKE” metric.

Related: PancakeSwap adds portfolio manager function in partnership with Bril

The exchange has also eliminated its “syrup pool” reward system, which previously allowed members of CakeDAO to stake their CAKE to receive an additional share of the exchange’s fees. Instead, the additional fees will now only be given to users with veCAKE.

According to the post, this change was implemented to increase the utility of the CAKE token, allowing only CAKE holders to influence which pools are most profitable:

“The beauty of this system lies in its exclusivity, as only veCAKE holders can channel CAKE emissions towards the pools where you have stakes, earning additional CAKE emissions as their pools garner more votes.”

To facilitate the transition from vCAKE to veCAKE, the exchange’s interface now allows staked CAKE to be transferred into the new contract by pushing a button and confirming the transaction.

PancakeSwap isn’t the only DEX adding new features in November. On Nov. 14, Uniswap released an Android version of its mobile wallet, and SushiSwap began testing native Bitcoin swaps across 30 networks on Nov. 17.