Uniswap
Summary
Uniswap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol built on Ethereum, founded in November 2018 by Hayden Adams and operated commercially by Uniswap Labs. It is the largest DEX by trading volume globally, using an automated market maker (AMM) model. The protocol has faced significant regulatory scrutiny — including an SEC Wells notice in April 2024 (closed without action in February 2025), a CFTC settlement resulting in a $175,000 penalty in September 2024, and a multi-year scam-token class action dismissed with prejudice in March 2026 — while remaining operationally active and technologically mature through its v4 release.
Timeline(17 events)
2018-11-02
Hayden Adams deploys the first Uniswap protocol (v1) on Ethereum mainnet.
Wikipedia / Uniswap2020-09-01
UNI governance token launched and retroactively airdropped to historical users.
Uniswap Blog2021-03-23
Uniswap v3 announced with Business Source License (BSL) 1.1, restricting commercial forks for two years.
CoinDesk2022-04-11
Class action lawsuit filed by Nessa Risley et al. against Uniswap Labs, Hayden Adams, and VC backers over scam tokens traded on the protocol.
Fortune2022-07-11
Phishing attack targeting Uniswap v3 LPs drains approximately $3.5–$8 million in ETH; protocol smart contracts not compromised.
CoinDesk2022-10-13
Uniswap Labs raises $165 million Series B led by Polychain Capital at a $1.66 billion valuation.
CoinDesk2023-04-01
Uniswap v3 Business Source License expires; code converts to GPL and becomes freely forkable.
CoinTelegraph2024-04-10
Uniswap Labs publicly discloses receipt of an SEC Wells notice alleging operation as an unregistered exchange and broker and issuance of unregistered securities.
CoinDesk2024-05-21
Uniswap Labs files formal Wells response urging the SEC to drop its pending enforcement action.
CoinDesk2024-09-04
CFTC issues order against Uniswap Labs for illegally offering leveraged retail commodity transactions; $175,000 civil penalty and cease-and-desist imposed.
CFTC.gov2025-01-31
Uniswap v4 launches on Ethereum and multiple EVM chains; Unichain Layer 2 goes live concurrently.
Uniswap Blog2025-02-25
SEC formally closes its investigation into Uniswap Labs with no enforcement action filed.
CoinDesk2025-02-26
Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates state law claims in the scam token class action.
Bloomberg Law2025-12-26
Uniswap governance passes UNIfication proposal with 99.9% approval, activating protocol fee switch and approving 100 million UNI token burn.
CoinDesk2025-12-27
Uniswap Labs eliminates all interface, wallet, and API fees following the UNIfication governance vote.
Uniswap Blog2026-03-03
Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismisses all remaining claims in scam token class action with prejudice, closing the case at the district court level.
CoinDeskThis investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/13/2026, 3:12:41 AM
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