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Technology

Uniswap Labs Beset By Regulators For Building a Decentralized Exchange (axios.com) 20

Uniswap Labs, the firm behind the world's most popular decentralized exchange, is under fire from a variety of regulators. From a report: If regulators want to throw a giant monkey wrench into the crypto economy, making people afraid to use Uniswap would be a great way to do it. Uniswap Labs today agreed to a $175,000 settlement with the CFTC, while some of its chief investors received subpoenas from the New York Department of Financial Services. The CFTC settlement concerned trading for various tokens that represent leveraged trades on leading crypto assets, such as bitcoin (BTC) and ETH. This all comes after the SEC previously served Uniswap Labs with a Wells Notice, which indicates that it's likely to take legal action.
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Uniswap Labs Beset By Regulators For Building a Decentralized Exchange

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  • by machineghost ( 622031 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @03:11PM (#64766268)

    Damn the man and all overprotective regulators. It's all a bunch of nonsense designed to keep the little guy from innovating with modern technology like NFTs!

    Besides, you can look at the whole of American history, and never once has anything bad happened due to lack of financial regulation ...

    • FTC. SEC. Federal Reserve. Treasury. CFPB. Now CFTC. Every agency wants to regulate crypto.

      Actually, let me correct that, they all want to kill crypto, so they can remake it in their image and un der their control. And that would ultimately both eliminate a great advantage of cryptocurrency, and lead to it becoming the ultimate fiat currency, ceding all financial control and freedom, at last, to the government.

      Right after CBDCs become the rule, I expect private ownership of precious metals will be banned. A

  • But when the musical chairs stop and you have to deal with real money the regulations will get you. They are known as offramp chokepoints for a reason. Remember its been 15 years and all of crypto can't even beat one tech company's market cap.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      >Remember its been 15 years and all of crypto can't even beat one tech company's market cap.
      Total crypto market cap ($~2T) beats the market cap of every tech company except for the top five.

    • The looming threat of regulatory or extrajudicial destruction has plagued crypto since its inception. Remember when CIA pulled Gavin in for an 'interview'?

      This is why Trump's pledge to make US the Crypto and AI center of the World caused all the Silicon Valley money people to get on the Trump Train.

      It's only the people who draw a weekly paycheck in SV who are still for Harris/Gensler and seek destruction of crypto as an asset class.

      They already destroyed LBRY, the application of crypto economics to free spe

  • ... it was standard practice to take hostages from conquered populations to ensure compliance. You can't just build a decentralized organization and not give us someone to torture/kill if we don't like what you are doing.

    • by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @03:28PM (#64766334)

      Sure but centralized or not if you are interfacing with and dealing in USD on a large and structural level then you are going to be under some form of regulation and scrutiny, and that is a good thing for everyone when billions of dollars are moving around.

      If you want to stay decentralized and unregulated just deal with crypto and no exchange into "actual" currency, but of course the entire crypto veil gets lifted when you get real money out of the equation, there's barely anything left anyone wants after that.

      • Uniswap doesn't deal in USD.

        • So they only exchange crypto for other crypto and anyone who buys on uniswap has to transfer crypto to another exchange to get USD for their crypto?

      • by Slayer ( 6656 )

        This crypto currency bashing gets a bit old by now, and funny enough, it really reminds me of linux bashing from the 90ies. Same kind of arguments (anyone remember the "linux is only used to compile its kernel" meme?), same kind of not getting the point. Back then slashdot was at the forefront of technology, now with crypto currencies its mysteriously stumbling behind.

        You may not see many use cases for crypto currencies and DeFi, just like most folks didn't see much benefit from linux and gcc back then. Thi

        • This doesn't mean these use cases and applications don't exist.

          I could accept that, but what are those? The only one I still think exists like 5% is that rare country that has a collapsed currency and needs some means of exchange and even then if that did or does happen its only temporary because crypto is worse at that function than nearly every alternative.

          just like most folks didn't see much benefit from linux and gcc back then

          That's not true, the use was obvious, it just didn't have a lot of adoption. We know this is true because launches V1 of Linux in 1991. 10 years later it has tons of users and is gaining ground rapidly in embed

          • by Slayer ( 6656 )

            I could accept that, but what are those? The only one I still think exists like 5% is that rare country that has a collapsed currency and needs some means of exchange and even then if that did or does happen its only temporary because crypto is worse at that function than nearly every alternative.

            This description fits well more than 50% of the world's population, and as you can imagine, crypto pickup in these countries is fast. I would also foresee a strong demand for crypto's notary function. You may trust notaries in western countries, but in most parts of the world I'd trust a smart contract on a credible chain a lot more that even their government officials.

            Another strong use case would be micropayments, which crypto facilitates at a cost, speed and security, which no other payment system will m

            • This description fits well more than 50% of the world's population

              No it doesn't. That's an extremely wild claim, I gotta ask you to source that one because I do not believe you.

              crypto pickup in these countries is fast.

              Is it? Even El Salvador is easing off it.

              I was "the freak" with linux on my desktop,

              This is dancing around my point and you know it. Linux's primary penetration is and always has been on non-desktop systems, why are we talking about personal desktops where it has never been north of like 4% until this decade.

              "linux is only for hackers who destroy your system/company" meme.

              ANd yet I have to be presented with an actual use case here as we sit 12 years on, is there a sector where blockchains at all have c

              • by Slayer ( 6656 )

                No it doesn't. That's an extremely wild claim, I gotta ask you to source that one because I do not believe you.

                I give you an example: a few years ago I had to transfer a modest three digit amount to a friend located in Egypt. My bank wanted 40€ for the transfer, Tranferwise did it for 10€. Do the same in crypto and it's next to free. And yes, I've done that (different country, but similar situation): it works.

                Is it? Even El Salvador is easing off it.

                Transfers between "the West" and less fortunate countries will increasingly try to avoid expensive middlemen. I've already bought computer parts for BTC, so that crypto coin stash is not just "pointle

  • by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @03:25PM (#64766324) Homepage

    It's not very decentralized if it can be fined, now is it?

    • It's not very decentralized if it can be fined, now is it?

      Perhaps the entire point of this exercise and successful fine of a decentralized exchange, is to eventually eliminate any and all competition.

      When the Government wants to create their own digital currency, it sure as shit will be centralized. For manipulation and ultimately control. Can’t have some decentralized “rogue” exchange(s) floating (nameless, faceless) “terrorist” groups bootleg currency now. That would be “bad” according to the media selling it. After

    • by phyrz ( 669413 )

      Uniswap Labs is a frontend over the top of the immutable decentralised uniswap smart contracts. Any one can trade anything using the contracts, but Uniswap Labs provides a curated experience, only listing certain tokens. Previously they listed some leveraged tokens which CFTC had problems with thus the fine.

      Point is, even if the US sues Uniswap Labs out of existence, it doesn't change a thing. There are already many other frontends for the uniswap contracts. ie. 1Inch or Llamaswap.

  • These idiots (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @03:46PM (#64766416)
    Think they can just slap a “defi” label on their product and suddenly it’s immune from all laws and regulations. They’re basically sovereign citizens, and we all know how it turns out for those people.

    The nations that control currency, ESPECIALLY the USA, don’t take kindly to individuals who think they can print their own money. The USD system is backed up by most of the civilized world, a huge body of national and international law, centuries of tradition, and a great deal of hard power aka the strongest military on the planet and many, MANY men with guns. Just cause you’re operating on “teh interwebs” doesn’t make you immune/invincible/invisible.
    • Re:These idiots (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @04:07PM (#64766464) Homepage

      The nations that control currency, ESPECIALLY the USA, don’t take kindly to individuals who think they can print their own money.

      You can make all the fake internet money you want, or go old school and print magic pixie dollars with Steamboat Willie era Mickey Mouse on them. It only becomes an issue for the government once you start encouraging people to trade it as an investment for the real kind of money.

  • The movement to crypto is a demonstration of just how fcuked the real economy is. Tax revenue wouldn't even pay 16% of the national debt.

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