Uniswap Boosts Trading Fees Amid SEC Scrutiny: Fees Increased to 0.25%

• Uniswap has hiked a majority of its swap fees by 66%, with experts noting that the move is to marshall up enough funds to defend itself against an impending lawsuit by the SEC.
• The agency issued a Wells Notice to the decentralized exchange last week, with founder Hayden Adams revealing on Friday that he intends to go the Ripple route and fight the SEC to the end.

Fighting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in court can take years and cost millions of dollars in legal fees, as Ripple has shown. With this in mind, Uniswap has hiked its swap fees as it prepares for a legal showdown with the Gary Gensler-led agency.

Dan Smith of Blockworks Research revealed the new fee structure over the weekend. “The new policy now charges 0.25% on all swaps through the UI and wallet, except stablecoin pairs and wrapping/unwrapping WETH,” the blockchain sleuth posted on X.

BREAKING: Uniswap Labs increased the fee on the swaps through the Uniswap Labs interfaces and expanded the set of fee-eligible trades

The new policy now charges 0.25% on all swaps through the UI and wallet, except stablecoin pairs and wrapping/unwrapping WETH

— Dan Smith (@smyyguy) April 13, 2024

Uniswap quietly updated its website to reflect the new fees. “On some token pairs, Uniswap Labs charges a flat fee of 0.25% to sustainably fund our operations,” it says.

The fee was previously 0.15% and has spiked 66%. It will be charged to all trades made through Uniswap Labs interfaces on the mainnet and all supported Layer 2s.

However, swaps from one stablecoin to another will be excluded from this fee, but only if they are tied to the same underlying asset. The exchange also excludes wraps between ETH and wrapped ETH (WETH).

Uniswap Prepares for Legal Showdown with SEC

As the researcher noted, the first updated fee was charged minutes after founder Hayden Adams revealed that the DEX had received a Wells Notice from the SEC. A Wells Notice is a letter sent by the SEC notifying a prospective respondent that the agency intends to bring a lawsuit against them, giving them enough time to prepare.

As Crypto News Flash reported, the news impacted the UNI native token, which plummeted by 15% almost immediately. In the past week, UNI has now dipped 33% and trades at $7.78.

Smith noted:

Given the timing, I assume this is to help build their war chest for the impending battle with the SEC.

Adams, in an interview on Friday, stated that Uniswap and its legal team are ready to go head-to-head with Gensler. He added that a key factor behind the exchange’s push to fight is the community support that it has received ever since the announcement.

He added:

We can’t do it alone, but I am ready for it. We have a whole industry that’s behind us and we plan to win. We’re on the right side of the law.

While going against the SEC is daunting and expensive, Ripple has shown the crypto community that it’s not impossible to battle the regulator.