Uniswap Under Investigation? Government Can’t Stop Crypto

People die, code lives forever

Looks like US regulators started to investigate Uniswap.

What for?

Not sure. As best I can tell, US regulators asked Uniswap to tell them how it works, how they market it, and what people do with it.

While that’s a good place to start an enforcement action, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In my day job, I work for the US government (but not the SEC). Government regulators investigate a lot of things — that doesn’t mean they plan to charge anybody with a crime.

Governments can’t stop this train (yet)

Does it really matter, anyway?

If history is our guide, the investigation will take a year or two (maybe longer) and may not result in any charges or fines. Even if the investigation results in charges or fines, life will go on. Uniswap is code — you can’t stop it. Anybody can use it or develop on it. The genie’s out of the bottle.

Cryptocurrencies run on public, permissionless networks that use open-source protocols with no point of control or failure. You can put their creators in jail, fine them, or exile them. You can’t stop somebody else from developing on the code, forking it, rebranding it…