Uniswap Labs responds to SEC Wells' notice: ready to fight and will continue to build

According to official news, Uniswap Labs responded to the Wells Notice issued by the U.S. SEC in April as follows: We believe that the SEC should embrace open source technology to improve outdated business and financial systems, rather than trying to make them disappear through litigation. The Uniswap protocol is a secure, low-cost, transparent infrastructure that "protects investors and maintains fair, orderly, and efficient markets," but ironically, this is exactly the mission of the SEC. The SEC's radical theory is to expand its jurisdiction from exchanges to communication technology, from securities to all markets. Their legal arguments are untenable and have been rejected by the court. We expect the House of Representatives to pass a bill soon to give the CFTC strong powers to cover digital asset transactions. The Uniswap protocol is a major innovation in the market that benefits consumers. It is an autonomous software that enables users to trade directly and securely without paying centralized intermediaries or relying on them to protect the security of their assets. The protocol can be integrated by anyone with an internet connection and does not rely on any team or Uniswap Labs for maintenance. It has supported $2 trillion in trading volume without a single hack and has been integrated and emulated by a large number of teams. Many traditional markets are inefficient and intransparent, operate with limited hours, have multi-day delays, require several intermediaries to collect fees, and increase costs for all participants. In contrast, users of the Uniswap protocol can directly access the market and custody their own assets. Transactions are transparent and verifiable by anyone; settlement is instant and service is available 24/7. These attributes give individuals unprecedented power to control the assets they own and create value on the Internet in new ways. The SEC’s legal theory is weak and wrong. It claims that the Uniswap protocol is an unregistered securities trading platform controlled by Uniswap Labs, the Uniswap interface is an unregistered securities broker-dealer, and the UNI token is an investment contract. A token is a file format, like a PDF; a protocol is a general-purpose computer program that anyone can use and integrate, like TCP/IP. Hundreds of thousands of users received UNI tokens after participating in the protocol early on, and they received the token for free, without a contract, and without expecting to profit from Uniswap Labs’ work. Uniswap Labs is ready to fight and will continue to build. The SEC should not use taxpayer resources to prosecute us. Our lawyers have gone 2-0 in SEC cases: Andrew Ceresney, former SEC enforcement chief, represented Ripple against the SEC; former U.S. Deputy Attorney Don Verrilli argued over 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and successfully sued the SEC on behalf of Grayscale. We will defend the right to use and distribute common code that challenges existing technology, adapts, and competes. We will continue to do what we do best: build.