The post Defiant Uniswap goes public with SEC Wells notice details, legal response appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Uniswap Labs has revealed why America’s securities regulator targeted the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for disciplinary action. On May 20, Uniswap shared details regarding the Wells notice issued against the company by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month. A Wells notice advises an individual/entity that the SEC is conducting a probe and an enforcement action is likely, while allowing the target of that notice to file a response detailing why they shouldn’t be prosecuted. At the time it confirmed receiving the Wells notice, Uniswap offered no specifics on what aspect of its operations might have triggered the SEC’s probe. Uniswap, which operates primarily on the Ethereum blockchain, is the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) by trading volume, and its Uniswap Protocol is utilized by numerous other DEXes. The SEC has recently begun targeting DeFi platforms and suspicion was high that Uniswap’s UNI token might also be viewed as an unregistered security. According to Uniswap, the SEC “asserts that the Uniswap Protocol is an unregistered securities exchange controlled by Uniswap Labs, that the Uniswap interface is an unregistered securities broker-dealer, and that the UNI token is an investment contract.” Uniswap says the SEC believes “value represented in a specific digital file format is a security—and that the SEC can unilaterally extend the definitions of exchanges, brokers and contracts to the point of meaninglessness.” By contrast, Uniswap claims “a token is a file format, like a PDF. The Protocol is a general purpose computer program that anyone can use and integrate, like TCP/IP. And the hundreds of thousands of users who received UNI tokens for their participation in the protocol’s early days received the token for free, with no contract, and without expectations of profit solely from the efforts of Uniswap Labs.” Uniswap expressed confidence that it will prevail in any legal fight with the SEC, having hired two attorneys with SEC v Crypto experience: former SEC Enforcement Chief Andrew Ceresney, who represented Ripple Labs in its…

---

Filed under: News - @ May 23, 2024 12:20 pm