Seven years ago, it seemed impossible: trading crypto without banks, brokers, or middlemen. Then came Uniswap, and with it, a new way to trade was born. What started as one engineer coding in a New York City apartment turned into a protocol that would change finance forever. With automated market makers (AMMs), anyone, anywhere, could swap tokens instantly. No gatekeepers. No permission. Just code, open to the world.
The impact was immediate. Liquidity pools started to replace order books. A few clicks could do what once required entire trading desks. Today, Uniswap stands at over $3T traded and has evolved into a household name in crypto. And we’re still only scratching the surface of what’s possible. The next wave of DeFi will be built on open, programmable markets – pushing the boundaries of what permissionless finance can be.
How Uniswap Labs’s Founder Pioneered Automated Market Makers
In 2017, Hayden — who was newly unemployed — took a leap of faith into the then-obscure world of Ethereum smart contracts.
Working alone at first, he created a proof of concept for what would become the Uniswap Protocol. It was a decentralized exchange powered by a deceptively simple idea: what if anyone, anywhere, could trade assets directly through self-executing smart contracts? This model eliminated intermediaries and replaced them with code. It was the birth of what would become the most widely utilized automated market maker in the crypto industry.
Not only did the protocol break ground by automating trades — reducing the need for third-party market makers — it allowed everyday crypto holders to earn potential returns by contributing liquidity to shared asset pools. The Uniswap Protocol unlocked 24/7 markets and dramatically lowered the barriers for new assets to find price discovery.
As Darius Moukhtarzade, Research Analyst at 21Shares, explained, the Uniswap Protocol is “one of the most important projects in the crypto space that made it possible to trade tokens directly with each other, without needing a centralized exchange like Binance. This innovation helped spark the growth of decentralized exchanges (DEXs).”
Uniswap Labs has scaled at a remarkable pace. Our products include the Uniswap Interface, a simple, intuitive, web-based application that gives anyone the ability to swap cryptocurrencies easily and cheaply 24/7/365; the Uniswap Wallet, a self-custodial mobile wallet that gives users full control over their digital assets; and the Uniswap Trading API, which brings the power of the Uniswap Protocol directly to other platforms, accessing deep liquidity and low prices through a customizable interface.
With these products and tools, we stand alone in owning the complete technology stack. And with the largest AMM market share on Ethereum, Uniswap Labs has established a powerful network effect: increasing trading volume attracts more liquidity providers, which in turn draws more traders, creating a self-reinforcing cycle. This vertical integration creates unprecedented synergies and positions us to capture value across the entire DeFi ecosystem.
Continuously Innovating and What’s Next
Innovation remains the backbone of Uniswap Labs’ journey.
UniswapX has evolved since its launch to become a meta-aggregator powering seamless trades that are executed individually and MEV-protected. UniswapX fillers tap into both onchain and offchain liquidity to deliver the most efficient swap possible.
In 2025, we released V4 with Hooks, the latest version of the protocol. Hooks let developers customize how liquidity pools work. Since V4’s launch, more than 150 hooks have been built across categories like dynamic fees, automated liquidity management, and compliance.
We also introduced Unichain, a new layer-2 network built on Optimism’s tech stack, designed for near-instant finality and reduced costs.
Meanwhile, adoption is accelerating across institutional users, as Uniswap Labs’ partnerships with market-leading firms such as Fireblocks, Talos, and Anchorage bring the Uniswap Protocol’s liquidity to professional trading desks through its Trading API.
We’ve also expanded our cultural outreach, both within the US and internationally, through collaborations with KidSuper, the launch of Uniswap trading cards, the build-up of our presence in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and strategic acquisitions like Crypto: The Game, bringing us deeper into mainstream culture.
This progress is exciting, and clear regulations will help us accelerate even further. That’s why Uniswap Labs joined other industry leaders such as Coinbase and Kraken in launching the American Innovation Project (AIP), a nonprofit focused on bringing clarity to US policymakers on crypto. Through AIP, we’ll foster dialogue, transparency, and understanding to help ensure DeFi and AI innovation can thrive responsibly in the US, while positioning Uniswap Labs as a leader in shaping an accessible financial future for millions around the world.
The Future is Now: Tokenized, Permissionless, Programmable
We believe that over the next three to five years, every asset, from payments to treasuries, to all financial instruments, will be tokenized onchain, creating an unprecedented opportunity for AMMs. AMMs enable the programmable markets and round-the-clock liquidity needed to drive faster and more efficient adoption of tokenized assets. It’s happening now with partnerships between TradFi and DeFi firms working together to create secure, compliant guardrails for tokenization. This is the world that we are building now: accessible, permissionless, and programmable by default.
And while we’re proud of the progress so far, the Uniswap story is just beginning.