The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has served a Wells Notice to Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX). This pre-enforcement notice, a precursor to potential legal action, triggered a plunge in Uniswap’s native token, UNI.
At the time of writing, UNI was trading at $9.37, down 16.2% in the last 24 hours, data from Coingecko shows. The crypto has also sustained a 15% loss in the last seven days.
Uniswap Whales Seek Safer Shores
The news of the SEC’s looming action acted as a fire alarm for Uniswap’s biggest investors. On-chain data analysts at Lookonchain reported significant market movements, with three large whales shedding a staggering 2.03 million UNI tokens – a cool $20 million vanishing from the Uniswap ecosystem within hours.
The wallets offloaded a combined 1.25 million UNI, potentially profiting by $3.5 million if they sold at current market prices. These tokens, interestingly, originated from a Binance transfer in March 2023, hinting at a potential strategy of holding on the exchange until the regulatory clouds cleared.
UNI takes a dip in the last 24 hours. Source: Coingecko
Another whale liquidated over 472,000 UNI for a quick $4.6 million USDC payout, netting a cool $1.67 million in profit. The fire sale wasn’t limited to these three giants – six other whale-sized wallets collectively moved 316,400 UNI tokens to Binance, valued at roughly $3.15 million. This mass exodus of heavyweight investors exacerbated the downward spiral of UNI’s price, leaving retail investors scrambling to assess the situation.
whitzardflow.eth was liquidated 107,010 $UNI($1M) 1 hour ago.
He bought 262,045 $UNI($3M) from Mar 1 to Mar 13 at $11.42 and deposited it into #Aave, then borrowed $1.8M of stablecoins.
Due to the decrease in $UNI price, he was liquidated 107,010 $UNI($1M) to repay the debt and… pic.twitter.com/6mRg8sL3YE
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 11, 2024
Uniswap Founder Vows To Fight, DeFi Future Uncertain
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams reacted swiftly and fiercely to the SEC’s move. In a fiery statement posted on the X platform, Adams condemned the SEC’s approach, accusing them of prioritizing opaque, legacy financial systems over the interests of consumers.
Today @Uniswap Labs received a Wells notice from the SEC.
I’m not surprised. Just annoyed, disappointed, and ready to fight.
I am confident that the products we offer are legal and that our work is on the right side of…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at NewsBTC…
