While most of the crypto market is in the red, the Uniswap token saw a slight price increase. This was due to a major legal win that coincided with the bear market. Namely, after years of investigation, the SEC is dropping its investigation against Uniswap Labs.
On Tuesday, February 25, Uniswap Labs revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was dropping its investigation of the company. The three-year legal probe was a notable source of regulatory uncertainty for the DeFi protocol.
As a result, the UNI price significantly outperformed the crypto markets. While Bitcoin price was down 6.59% over the same day, and the crypto market cap lost 5.55%, Uniswap gained 0.35%. The token recovered some of its earlier losses after the news.
In a social media post, Uniswap Labs stated that this was a “huge win for DeFi” and reaffirmed that they were on the right side of the law. At the same time, Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams claimed that the investigation imposed significant costs on the company.
The investigation forced Uniswap Labs to “waste incredible amounts of time and millions of dollars,” Adams stated. He also claimed that the investigations were “violating and stressful” to him personally, adding that “investigation is the punishment.”
Uniswap Reversal Comes After SEC Leadership Change
SEC’s decision to close the investigation into Uniswap Labs is part of a broader shift after the departure of the former Chair, Gary Gensler. Under new leadership, the SEC took a much more crypto-friendly turn. Specifically, Donald Trump’s appointment of Acting Chair Paul Atkins signaled a new approach, a shift many industry insiders welcomed.
So far, the SEC has dropped investigations and settled legal battles with many of the crypto industry’s top players. The previous week, Coinbase revealed that the SEC would drop its lawsuit against the company, in which the SEC also accused it of operating an unregistered securities exchange.
Earlier this month, the SEC and Binance made a deal to pause their ongoing legal case, with the potential to settle out of court. Under Gensler, the SEC accused Binance of offering services to US customers without registration.
