After 3 years and millions of dollars spent, Uniswap has withstood the SEC investigation.
Original Article Title: "SEC Ends Uniswap Investigation! Founder: Spent 3 Years and Burned Millions, DeFi Finally Triumphs"
Original Article Author: BlockTempo of ChainNews
In April last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells Notice to Ethereum decentralized exchange (DEX) leader Uniswap Labs, accusing it of operating an unregistered securities exchange, engaging in unregistered broker or clearing activities, and even involving unregistered securities issuance, potentially facing legal action.
Today, this saga has finally come to an end. Uniswap Labs announced early this morning (26th) that the SEC officially closed the investigation yesterday and did not take any enforcement action. The official statement described this as a "major victory for DeFi" and emphasized:
"This once again proves the fact we have always believed in—that the technology we are building is on the right side of the law, and our work is on the right side of history."

Uniswap: Decentralized Finance is the Future, and Now the U.S. Can Lead This Trend
Uniswap Labs further stated in the announcement that DeFi is improving the financial market, allowing users to trade instantly, securely, and transparently without relinquishing control of their assets.
At Uniswap Labs, we are committed to expanding the accessibility of DeFi through technology, enhancing liquidity and price transparency, reducing reliance on intermediaries, and lowering transaction costs. The products we are building not only serve users but also make the entire financial system more robust.
Uniswap also commended the SEC's new leadership, believing that they are reevaluating enforcement investigations and litigations within the industry, not limited to the Uniswap case, and recognizing that there are more effective ways to protect American consumers.
The conclusion of this investigation is not just a victory for Uniswap Labs, but also a collective victory for the DeFi community, developers, and users as we strive to build a better financial system.
Finally, Uniswap reiterates that they have always been willing to engage in dialogue with regulatory agencies and policymakers to establish a clear and reasonable DeFi regulatory framework, and look forward to engaging in more constructive discussions in the future.
Hayden Adams: SEC Investigation Cost Us 3 Years and Millions of Dollars
In response to this, Uniswap co-founder Hayden Adams wrote a post detailing how the SEC (previous administration) conducted an investigation that lasted 3 years, forcing them to spend countless hours and millions of dollars, and even brought personal stress. He pointed out:
The intrusive and high-pressure nature of the federal investigation, to the extent that there is a legal saying in the legal world: "The investigation itself is the punishment." But this should not be the cost that American innovators have to bear.
He emphasized that Uniswap Labs is not a broker, the Uniswap protocol itself is not an unregistered exchange or clearinghouse, and Uniswap Labs does not operate it. In addition, the UNI token is not a security.
However, the SEC still took enforcement action against Uniswap Labs, even without clear legal grounds, attempting to arbitrarily enforce DeFi into a regulatory framework that is inconsistent with its essence, while at the same time not providing clear rules or compliance pathways.
Today, these SEC charges have been dropped, leading him to state that this victory belongs to the entire DeFi ecosystem:
"This once again proves our long-standing position: decentralized technologies and self-custody are fundamentally different from the centralized intermediary systems they seek to replace."
He further pointed out that self-custody funds operate on the public chain through smart contracts, bringing unprecedented transparency to the financial market. It is simply not viable to directly impose a regulatory framework applicable to the centralized, opaque traditional financial market (TradFi) on DeFi.
Finally, Adams expressed gratitude to the new SEC leadership for taking a more constructive regulatory approach and looks forward to future cooperation to ensure that DeFi can thrive in the United States rather than be forced to move overseas.

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