On April 10, 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned the decentralized exchange Uniswap of possible legal action. This was announced by its founder and CEO Hayden Adams.
Today @Uniswap Labs received a Wells notice from the SEC.
I'm not surprised. Just annoyed, disappointed, and ready to fight.
I am confident that the products we offer are legal and that our work is on the right side of history. But it's been clear for a while that rather than…
— hayden.eth 🦄 (@haydenzadams) April 10, 2024
According to him, the message came in the form of a so-called “Wells notice.” This is an SEC document warning the company that a lawsuit may be filed. Typically, the regulator sends it before filing a formal claim or gives a final opportunity to refute the allegations.
Uniswap management did not disclose the exact contents of the “Wells notice.” However, in their blog the team statedthat the UNI token is not a security.
Based on recent SEC filings against Coinbase, Binance, and other trading platforms, it appears the agency is looking to charge Uniswap with illegally selling securities or failing to register as a broker or exchange in the United States.
Bill Hughes, Senior Legal Advisor and Director of Regulatory Affairs at Consensys, commented on the situation:
Steady lads. I'm seeing signs of some getting a bit spooked and wondering if they might be in harms way in light of the news @Uniswap just dropped. a couple of things:
1) Uniswap was just informed that the SEC staff is going to recommend to the commission that they approve a…
— Bill Hughes: wchughes.eth 🦊 (@BillHughesDC) April 10, 2024
He explained that the SEC must first obtain approval of the lawsuit from five commissioners, including its chairman Gary Gensler.
The lawyer denied the idea that the SEC could prosecute Uniswap (UNI) token holders, platform managers or other community members. According to him, even during the trial, Uniswap will continue to operate and will not suffer.
According to Lookonchain, three large coin holders moved 2.03 million UNI worth approximately $20 million to centralized exchanges following the news. The UNI token rate dropped by 17%.
Affected by the #SEC Wells Notice received by #UniswapLabs3 whales dumped 2.03M $UNI($20M) and the price of $UNI dropped by ~17%.
0x2F8b and 0x3555 deposited the 1.25M $UNI($11.7M) received from Binance on Mar 3, 2023 to #Binance 1 hour ago, and will make ~$3.5M if sell.… pic.twitter.com/Kj5M6Irtlr
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 11, 2024
At that moment, the asset rate fell below $9.1, although the day before it was trading at $11.6. When writing an article, UNI costs $9.36, according to TradingView.
At the end of March 2024, Gary Gensler stated that the crypto market needed “further disinfection.” That same month, the agency asked Congress to allocate an additional $158 million from the federal budget to regulate the crypto market.
Source: Cryptocurrency

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