Uniswap, one of many world’s largest decentralized exchanges (DEXs), may rival conventional monetary establishments in scale if regulatory situations have been completely different.
That’s the view of Matt Hougan, Chief Funding Officer at Bitwise Asset Administration, who argued that Uniswap’s present $6 billion market capitalization understates its true worth.
Uniswap at $6 billion feels too small. If it have been an organization, it might be the four-hundredth largest monetary companies enterprise on this planet — roughly the identical measurement as Storebrand, a financial savings and insurance coverage enterprise in Norway.
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) August 4, 2025
In a sequence of posts on X (previously Twitter), Hougan in contrast Uniswap’s valuation to that of Storebrand, a mid-sized Norwegian insurance coverage agency, which ranks round four-hundredth amongst international monetary companies firms.
“Uniswap at $6 billion feels too small,” Hougan wrote. “If it have been an organization, it might be the four-hundredth largest monetary companies enterprise on this planet.”
However the analogy shortly drew criticism from trade watchers, who identified that Uniswap’s native governance token, $UNI, doesn’t symbolize fairness or possession, nor does it provide token holders a share of protocol income.
Bitwise CIO compares Uniswap DEX to conventional finance valuation
Tom Lombardi, a companion at Cicada Companions, responded by drawing a pointy line between token worth and company fairness. “I’d be inquisitive about debating Uniswap Lab’s company valuation,” he wrote, “however the $UNI governance token has little to no parallel to a company valuation.”
Hougan acknowledged the excellence, however added that the image may change ought to extra favorable rules enter the area. “Yep, that’s a good level,” he replied. “As talked about, I feel the premise underneath which it’s attention-grabbing is one the place regulatory reduction permits a reset of tokenomics.”
That theme, regulatory reform as a valuation unlock, was reemphasized in Hougan’s responses to a different X person, who identified that the $UNI token at present gives no intrinsic worth to holders.
“The Uniswap token is at present worthless,” the person wrote. “The muse seemingly has but to deal with income issues even with Hyperliquid setting the usual. Uni in the intervening time gives no intrinsic worth to neighborhood holders aside from the enjoyment of pink merchandise at crypto occasions funded by DAO tokens.”
Hougan acknowledged, “I consider the rationale for this has been regulatory uncertainty. Because the SEC’s new ‘Mission Crypto’ begins to peel again that uncertainty, I’m wondering if this can stay true.”
Anticipate ‘Mission Crypto’ to get Uniswap’s actual worth
Regardless of its non-corporate construction, Uniswap has scaled to some extent the place it competes in quantity with some centralized exchanges. In response to CoinMarketCap, Uniswap’s market cap is over $6.1 billion.
Nonetheless, as Lombardi and Colby word, Uniswap’s present construction doesn’t but justify that optimism. The protocol’s basis, whereas lively in developer grants and ecosystem progress, has not but proposed mechanisms that hyperlink token possession to monetary achieve. Any such transfer may set off SEC scrutiny.
The prospect of regulatory readability stays a key wildcard. Final month, the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee introduced “Mission Crypto,” an initiative designed to modernize the company’s method to digital property.
If regulatory reduction permits decentralized protocols to distribute earnings or income to token holders, much like dividends, then governance tokens like $UNI may start to resemble true fairness.
Till then, Uniswap stays each one of the vital profitable DEXs by quantity and a protocol whose flagship token gives no authorized declare to money flows.
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