Uniswap

“Uniswap” refers to three related things worth keeping straight. The protocol is the on-chain smart contracts that actually execute swaps; it is non-custodial and permissionless, so you trade from your own wallet and no company holds your funds. Uniswap Labs is the US company that builds the main app, wallet and interface on top of that protocol. UNI is the governance token that lets holders vote on protocol changes. When people ask whether Uniswap is “a company” or “a token”, the answer is that it is a protocol, with a company building for it and a token governing it.

Uniswap has shipped four protocol versions, and older ones keep running because the contracts are immutable. v1 (2018) proved the automated-market-maker idea. v2 (2020) added direct token-to-token pairs and became the template much of DeFi copied. v3 (2021) introduced concentrated liquidity, letting providers focus capital in a price range for far better efficiency. v4 (2025) keeps concentrated liquidity but adds “hooks” — plug-in code that runs at points in a pool's lifecycle — and a cheaper single-contract architecture. Which version a trade uses is usually chosen for you by the app for best price.

Beyond the protocol, Uniswap Labs ships the products most people actually touch: the web app at app.uniswap.org, a self-custody mobile wallet, and a browser extension. These are convenience layers — they route your swap to the protocol and let you manage positions — but the trade still settles on-chain from your own wallet. As with any wallet, install the extension and app only from official sources, because lookalikes exist to capture recovery phrases.

Uniswap's core contracts are among the most audited and most battle-tested in DeFi, and the AMM itself has not been exploited to drain the protocol — a strong record for code that has custodied enormous volume since 2018. Because it is non-custodial, there is also no company holding your funds to be hacked.

The risks that remain are the ones inherent to using any DEX. Because listing is permissionless, anyone can create a token and a pool, so scam and “honeypot” tokens exist alongside real ones — you are responsible for checking what you are trading. Phishing sites that impersonate Uniswap, and malicious token-approval prompts, are the other common way people lose funds; both are user-side, not a flaw in the protocol. Confirm you are on the official domain and read approvals before signing.