What is Uniswap (UNI) and why has it been in the news lately?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto. In plain English.

Lately, one company was in the news quite a bit. And that is Uniswap. Why is that and what do they do?

Uniswap is a decentralized crypto exchange. That means you can swap one cryptocurrency for another, hence the latter part of the name. And "uni"? Well, that comes from unicorn, the brand animal of the company.

And it's not really a traditional company, it is governed by its users through a DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization.

Let's break it all down!

When you go to Uniswap, the site lets you connect your wallet to exchange one crypto for another. It is a decentralized exchange, because there are no middlemen. Code on the blockchain executes all the trades for you.

Uniswap takes a small fee, but in total that made the company a whopping $40m in 2021.

And the future of what happens with that is now under discussion. Uniswap gives the holders of their UNI token voting rights in company decisions, and a new proposal to distribute the companies income to those token holders has just been released. This would be similar to what a dividend does for stock.

Sounds great for the token holders? Yes and no - because there are legal consequences. That's why Uniswap is in the news, and we'll dive into that in tomorrow's episode about the ominous "Howey test"

Oh, and in case you missed it yesterday - we just started a Patreon account for this podcast so you can get tomorrow’s "Howey Test" Episode already now! If you enjoy this show every day please consider supporting us on patreon.com/crytptoinplainenglish.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.