Uniswap CEO denies allegations of charging for protocol deployments

Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams has refuted allegations floating around on X that it has demanded money from decentralized finance protocols for deployments.

The CEO took to X on Sept. 12 and said that neither Uniswap Labs nor Uniswap Foundation charge for protocol deployments. 

Source: Hayden Adams

Adams said protocol deployments happen through governance votes. He explained that for the Uniswap interface, the requirements for deployment on a new chain are based on the activity and effort required. 

Source: Hayden Adams

The reaction from the Uniswap CEO comes after X user Alexander alleged that Uniswap asked developers “to pony up $20M for an ineffective Uniswap deployment.”

The comment came in response to a tweet from Kene Ezeji-Okoye, co-founder of Millicent Labs, who claimed Uniswap had charged $10 million for a protocol deployment “and an extra $10 million in user incentives focused on trading carbon credits.”

Alexander did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

The Uniswap protocol is used for providing liquidity and trading ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Uniswap Labs developed the Uniswap protocol and interface. 

Related: US regulator fines crypto fund $150K for illicit Bitcoin loan

Uniswap settles with US regulator

In other news, Uniswap recently got into a regulatory tussle with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). On Sept. 4, the regulator charged Uniswap Labs with illegally providing leveraged cryptocurrency trading to US retail investors. 

Uniswap Labs settled the charges by paying a $175,000 civil penalty and agreeing to cease violating the Commodity Exchange Act. 

Uniswap identifies as a software company 

In April, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Uniswap operated an unregistered securities exchange. 

In its response, Uniswap said it is a software company, based in New York, that “reimagines market structures” and is not “an exchange, broker, or clearing firm under any reasonable reading of the securities laws.”

“Yes, I’m frustrated that the SEC seems to be more concerned with protecting opaque systems than protecting consumers. And that we’ll have to fight a US government agency to protect our company and our industry,” CEO Adams wrote on X at the time. 

Source: Hayden Adams

Uniswap is one of the most popular decentralized finance protocols, facilitating token swaps on over a dozen blockchain networks.

Uniswap TVL. Source: DefiLlama

Uniswap held about $4.35 billion in total value locked as of Sept. 12, according to DefiLlama. 

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