KeyTakeaways:
SEC drops investigation into Uniswap Labs, marking a win for decentralized finance.Uniswap defends in opposition to SEC costs, arguing its protocol isn’t a securities change.CFTC fines Uniswap $175,000 for unlawful leveraged commodity transactions.
The U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC) has formally concluded its investigation into Uniswap Labs, the corporate behind the world’s largest decentralized change (DEX), with out submitting any costs.
This marks the tip of a authorized battle that has been ongoing since April 2024. The case, which was intently noticed by the crypto market, centered across the SEC’s attainable classification of Uniswap as an unregistered securities change.
In April 2024, the SEC investigated whether or not Uniswap Labs was working illegally as a securities change and whether or not its UNI token must be categorized as a safety. This investigation got here to a head when the SEC issued a Wells discover to the corporate, signaling that authorized motion may comply with. Nonetheless, after months of discussions and authorized challenges, the SEC has formally dropped its case.
Uniswap Labs strongly denied the fees in response to the SEC’s investigation. In Might 2024, the corporate submitted a 40-page response arguing that its protocol didn’t qualify as an change underneath U.S. regulation.
Marvin Ammori, Uniswap’s chief authorized officer, emphasised that the SEC’s claims have been based mostly on an incorrect assumption that each one tokens must be categorized as securities. The authorized workforce additional argued that the SEC should redefine key authorized phrases, equivalent to “change” and “funding contract,” to carry Uniswap underneath its regulatory scope.
CFTC Motion and Positive
Whereas Uniswap deflected the SEC’s costs, the corporate confronted one other problem from the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC). In September 2024, the CFTC imposed a $175,000 nice on Uniswap Labs for providing illegally traded commodity transactions.
The costs have been associated to particular buying and selling merchandise on the platform that allowed customers to realize leveraged publicity to digital belongings like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The nice was comparatively modest however communicated that decentralized finance (DeFi) operators should guarantee compliance with U.S. commodity legal guidelines.
Regardless of the CFTC nice, Uniswap Labs described the SEC’s choice to drop its investigation as a victory for the decentralized finance sector. CEO Hayden Adams accused the SEC of missing a transparent authorized basis in pursuing the corporate.
Adams additionally famous that the corporate had spent hundreds of thousands defending itself throughout the investigation. He expressed gratitude towards the SEC’s new management for taking a extra constructive method than the earlier administration, including that one of the best days for DeFi have been forward.
