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Judge Dismisses Uniswap Class Action With Prejudice, Setting DeFi Developer Precedent

The ruling frames open-source DeFi code as a neutral tool, placing liability on anonymous token issuers.

Overview

  • U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla on March 2 threw out the second amended complaint, ending the case at the district-court level.
  • The court said plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege actual knowledge of fraud, deceptive conduct under state laws, or unjust enrichment.
  • Providing a permissionless marketplace did not constitute substantial assistance of fraud, with the opinion noting it “defies logic” to hold code authors liable for third-party misuse.
  • The decision clears Uniswap Labs, CEO Hayden Adams, the Uniswap Foundation, and named venture-capital backers, as the scam token issuers remain unidentified.
  • UNI rose roughly 5–6% after the ruling, as industry figures welcomed the precedent even as experts cautioned it does not confer blanket immunity or preclude future regulation.