SEC signals to Uniswap that enforcement actions are looming

The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday sent a Wells notice, which typically precedes an enforcement action, to decentralized finance platform Uniswap, CEO Hayden Adams said. 

“I’m not surprised. Just annoyed, disappointed, and ready to fight,” Adams wrote on X Wednesday. “I am confident that the products we offer are legal and that our work is on the right side of history.” 

A representative from the SEC declined to comment. 

Uniswap Chief Legal Officer Marvin Ammori, also on X, called the notice “another abuse of power” by the SEC. 

Uniswap executives did not specify what, exactly, the SEC is claiming the company did wrong. The team did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment. 

“People often ask me why we stay in the US and my answer is simple: I believe that blockchain is incredibly powerful technology,” Adams wrote. “Like the Internet, it’s here to stay. So someone needs to figure it out, and it might as well be us.”

The news comes just over a year after the SEC served Coinbase with a Wells notice, stating that securities regulators were planning on bringing an enforcement action related to the exchange’s Prime and Wallet services, which eventually came last summer.

Last month, Coinbase partially won its bid to dismiss the SEC’s charges relating to Coinbase Wallet, although the rest of the case is expected to proceed to trial. The presiding judge said the SEC still has a plausible case alleging that Coinbase operated as an unregistered broker, exchange and clearing house.

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