Uniswap

Uniswap is a decentralized exchange protocol that runs on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to swap cryptocurrencies directly from their wallets without a central authority. Instead of matching buyers and sellers on an order book, it relies on automated market making through smart contracts and liquidity pools. Anyone can become a liquidity provider by depositing tokens into a pool, earning fees from trades.

Launched in 2018 by Hayden Adams, Uniswap pioneered the automated market maker model, which has since been widely adopted. The protocol is entirely open-source, meaning its code is publicly available for anyone to fork or build upon. By December 2024, Uniswap had become the largest decentralized exchange and the seventh-largest cryptocurrency exchange overall by daily trading volume, processing billions of dollars in trades each week.

Uniswap Labs, the company behind the interface, is headquartered in New York City and valued at $1.66 billion after a 2022 funding round. The protocol itself has generated over $3.6 billion in cumulative fees since launch, though those fees go to liquidity providers, not the company. In 2024, Uniswap launched v4 with customizable hooks and received a Wells Notice from the SEC, signaling potential enforcement action.[edit]