Uniswap Labs, the team behind the cryptocurrency landscape’s first decentralized exchange (DEX), has successfully closed a $165 million Series B funding round. The capital will be used to develop new products and make the platform accessible to beginners.
Uniswap raises $165 million
The winter in the cryptocurrency market definitely doesn’t seem to be cooling investors down. While many rumors about a possible new fundraising have been circulating for a few days, Uniswap Labs confirmed the information this Thursday, October 13 in a statement published on its blog.
1/ We’re proud to announce that we’ve raised $165 million in Series B funding to bring the powerful simplicity of Uniswap to even more people across the world https://t.co/ChilydWOEO
– Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap) October 13, 2022
Uniswap Labs, which runs the eponymous decentralised exchange (DEX), has raised $165 million in a Series B funding round. Led by venture capital firm Polychain Capital, this round of funding also saw the participation of a16z, Paradigm and Variant.
At the time of writing, Uniswap is the first decentralised exchange in the cryptocurrency landscape. According to data from aggregator Dune Analytics, the protocol alone accounts for 65% of the industry’s transaction volumes, or about half a billion dollars a day.
Uniswap’s native token, UNI, was quick to appreciate the news. In the space of two hours, UNI’s share price jumped by almost 10%. This was a remarkable performance as the overall market plummeted in the face of US inflation rate announcements.
UNI/USDT price in 5 minute time scale
“Making Web3 accessible to all “
This fundraising will allow Uniswap to consolidate its position as a leader in the decentralised exchange sector. Their ambition is simple and can be summed up by the title of the press release: “Make Web3 accessible to all”. To achieve this, the protocol will focus on developing new features and making it accessible to beginners.
“Today, Uniswap Labs will bring the simplicity and security – for which the Uniswap protocol is known – to more people around the world by investing in its web application and development tools, launching NFTs, moving into mobile, and more!”
In this vein, Uniswap also announced on Wednesday 12 October a redesign of its web application. Specifically, the protocol remains the same but users now have more real-time information on cryptocurrencies to facilitate their swapping experience.
In addition, Uniswap has been talking for several months about its plans to open up to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The idea would be to allow users to easily exchange NFTs. In this sense, Uniswap Labs has acquired Genie.xyz, a marketplace aggregator of NFTs.
Finally, the release also mentions a recent initiative by Uniswap Labs. The governance community recently voted to create the Uniswap Foundation. This will help decentralise the protocol and provide at least $60 million in grants to community projects over the next few years.
