Uniswap UNI
-15.32%
Labs announced today that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had filed a Wells Notice, indicating a possible lawsuit.
Unsurprisingly, the crypto industry is interpreting this as a significant attack.
“This is the big one, folks.” Posted Bankless co-founder Ryan Adams on X. “Massive escalation by the SEC and the White House. Uniswap is an example of crypto decentralization – instead of celebrating Hayden Adams as the entrepreneur of the generation, they are taking him to court. A war on crypto is a war on the internet.”
While many teams building decentralized projects have chosen to avoid the US, both in terms of location and by banning access to their frontend applications, Uniswap Labs decided to stick with its home country. The position is that it operates a front-end website that provides access to the Uniswap protocol, code that runs on Ethereum and is not directly managed. However, this always carried the risk of becoming a prime target for any regulator looking to crack down on the decentralized finance sector.
While the SEC has had some cases involving decentralized organizations, this is the first time it has gone after a major protocol.
“The war on DeFi has begun, we must bring privacy onchain and continue building censorship-resistant systems,” Posted The co-founder of Rollup, who goes by Andy on X.
Many in the crypto industry expressed their support for Uniswap and its founder, Hayden Adams. A common theme was the industry’s antipathy toward SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
“Today we are all team Uniswap. DeFi is worth fighting for. Sovereignty is a noble pursuit, and the transparency of blockchain technology and software is unmatched by traditional systems. This will be a milestone for all of us.” said AJ Warner, head of strategy at Offchain Labs.
Some expressed strong support for Uniswap Labs in the event of a possible trial. “I’m sorry you have to fight this battle on behalf of everyone in DeFi, but I couldn’t possibly have more confidence in you and your team to win,” said Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at Variant Fund, in a response to Adams at X.
Others simply called for clear regulations to allow the crypto industry to flourish in the US rather than succeed in the rest of the world.
“Fair and transparent rules that allow technology to thrive is all we ask for,” Posted Vishal Gupta, former Head of Exchange at Coinbase.
