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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has drastically shifted its stance on crypto since previous Chair Gary Gensler quit. SEC has revealed that its investigation into Uniswap Labs has been dropped with no disciplinary action.
On 25 February 2025, Uniswap Labs celebrated closing of the investigation with a post on X. “This is a huge win for DeFi and reaffirms what we’ve always known – that the technology we build is on the right side of the law, and our work is on the right side of history,” said Uniswap Labs.
But Uniswap isn’t the only company that witnessed SEC’s kindness. The heated lawsuit between Ripple Labs and the SEC has suddenly disappeared from the SEC website.
The Ripple case that started in December 2020 has no remaining references on the SEC website. This has led the crypto community to believe that after the Trump Administration and the new SEC leadership came into effect, many crypto-related lawsuits will be dropped.
In April, the SEC issued a Wells notice claiming that Uniswap Labs operated as an unregistered broker, operated an exchange, and issued an unregistered security
As of yesterday, that investigation has officially been closed, and the SEC is taking no enforcement action
This is a…
— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) February 25, 2025
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Gensler And SEC Sued Uniswap
On April 10 2024, the SEC served Uniswap Labs with a Wells Notice, a precursor to a formal enforcement action.
“They went after us despite having no clear legal basis, as part of a strategy of arbitrary enforcement to try to force DeFi into a regulatory framework that doesn’t fit—all while refusing to provide clear rules or a path to compliance,” said Hayden Adams, inventor of Uniswap protocol.
According to Adams, the investigation took over three years, “forcing us to waste incredible amounts of time and millions of dollars.”
“It also had a personal impact — federal investigations are violating and stressful to the point where there is a saying among lawyers that “the investigation IS the punishment.” That shouldn’t be the price of innovation in the US,” said Adams.
Commenting on the win, Uniswap CLO, Katherine Minarik said, “It’s the right result to have our SEC investigation closed without any enforcement action. But there is no way to unwind the enormous (and unnecessary!) costs of so many other investigations and litigations in crypto.”
Criticising the SEC, Minarik commented on the lost time, “The good products to improve financial access for all that we couldn’t build. The good jobs in America that we couldn’t create. Perhaps at least we have learned an important lesson about the harms that can follow when regulators turn too quickly to their enforcement powers instead of dialogue, especially with good faith actors. There is a better way.”
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A Huge Win For DeFi As A Whole
The SEC’s decision to drop its investigation into Uniswap Labs, the entity behind the decentralized exchange, marks a major shift in how the regulator views decentralized finance (DeFi). Historically, the SEC has scrutinized DeFi platforms for potential violations of securities laws, often arguing that certain tokens or activities fall under its jurisdiction. However, recent developments suggest the agency is re-evaluating this approach.
Netizens deem this to be a huge win, not just for Uniswap Labs but for DeFi as a whole.
“It reaffirms what we’ve said all along: that decentralized technology and self-custody are inherently different from the centralized, intermediated systems they aim to replace,” said Adams.
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