What is Uniswap?
Uniswap (UNI) is the largest decentralized exchange in crypto by cumulative trading volume. Launched in 2018 by Hayden Adams, it introduced the Automated Market Maker model that now underlies the vast majority of on-chain trading. Uniswap does not use an order book - trades happen against on-chain liquidity pools where prices are determined by a constant-product formula.
The UNI token was airdropped to early users and liquidity providers in 2020 and serves as the governance asset for the protocol. Uniswap Labs, the company, and the Uniswap DAO, the token holders, together shape protocol upgrades, fee switches and grant programs.
How does Uniswap work?
Uniswap's current major release is V4, which introduces 'hooks' - customisable logic that liquidity pools can attach at key lifecycle events. V3 remains widely used and introduced concentrated liquidity, letting LPs focus capital inside a chosen price range rather than across the entire curve.
Trades route through a Universal Router that finds optimal paths across pools. Liquidity providers earn swap fees proportional to their share of each pool. Uniswap is deployed on Ethereum and most major L2s, with cross-chain routing coordinated by the protocol's front-end and through UniswapX, an intent-based order flow system.