A publication from the Wall Street Journal revealed that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the startup and main developer behind the world’s largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, Uniswap Labs.
Uniswap is a DEX platform that enables users to swap between Ethereum-based coins and tokens without a central entity, according to 1inch. It is ranked the largest decentralized exchange in terms of trade volume with over $10 billion in crypto tokens swapped in the last seven days and over $1.57 billion trading volume over the past 24 hours at the time of writing, according to Coinmarketcap.
The WSJ publication states that unnamed sources told the outlet that SEC enforcement attorneys are probing the dex Uniswap Labs. The report shows that the SEC has not commented on the matter but it did not stop Uniswap Labs from responding, stating that the firm is “committed to complying with the laws and regulations governing our industry and to providing information to regulators that will assist them with any inquiry.”
The unknown informant(s) told the WSJ that the SEC enforcement officials want to know how Uniswap is marketed and wants information on crypto lending applications. The informants said that the SEC wants to find out if dex or lending applications “resisted oversight.” The investigation seems to be a developing story and the WSJ says no allegations have stemmed from the informant’s information.
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The news comes after SEC chairman Gary Gensler stated last month that the SEC plans to create more crypto-related rules targeting DeFi, token offerings and stablecoins. After this, in late August, the regulator signed a $125,000 deal with blockchain analytics firm AnChain.AI to get tech assistance in monitoring and regulating the DeFi industry.
One could say that Uniswap Labs expected this to happen as the company delisted 100 tokens that could be deemed unregistered securities by U.S. regulators from its main user interface at the end of July. The firm stated, “We monitor the evolving regulatory landscape. These tokens have always represented a very small portion of overall volume on the Uniswap Protocol.”
Uniswap’s native token, UNI, is trading $29.10, down 2.98% as of the time of this writing.
