Uniswap is the largest decentralised exchange (DEX) by trading volume, built on Ethereum and the foundational protocol that popularised Automated Market Maker (AMM) technology in DeFi. Founded by Hayden Adams and launched in November 2018, Uniswap introduced the constant product formula enabling permissionless token swaps without order books. Version milestones: v1 (2018) basic ETH/token pools; v2 (2020) ERC-20 to ERC-20 pairs and flash swaps; v3 (2021) concentrated liquidity where LPs choose price ranges for dramatically improved capital efficiency; v4 (2024) hooks for custom logic and reduced gas costs. Uniswap has processed over $2 trillion in cumulative trading volume. The UNI governance token was airdropped in September 2020 (400 UNI to every historical user) in one of crypto most celebrated airdrops worth ~$1,400 at launch. Uniswap has expanded beyond Ethereum to Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and other EVM chains. The protocol earns 0.01-1% on every swap (fee tier chosen per pool), distributed to liquidity providers. Uniswap Labs builds the interface; the Uniswap DAO (controlling a $3B+ treasury) governs the protocol parameters and fee switches.
Example: Example: A DeFi trader wants to swap USDC for a new token only available on Uniswap v3. They select the 0.3% fee pool, set 0.5% slippage tolerance, and execute. Uniswap routes the trade through the deepest available pool; the swap executes in one Ethereum transaction (12 seconds), and the trader receives tokens directly to their wallet – no account, no KYC, no intermediary involved.
Learn more: Uniswap
