DEX dev Uniswap Labs looks for new funding at unicorn valuation: Report

Main decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap (UNI) is within the early levels of elevating vital funds to additional increase its decentralized finance (DeFi) choices, based on a brand new report.

Uniswap Labs, a DeFi startup contributing to the Uniswap Protocol, is participating with a variety of traders to boost an fairness spherical of $100 million to $200 million, TechCrunch reported on Sept. 30.

The startup is working with traders like Polychain and one in every of Singapore’s sovereign funds as a part of the upcoming funding spherical, the report notes, citing two nameless folks aware of the matter. In accordance with the report, Uniswap can be valued at $1 billion, however the phrases of the deal are topic to adjustments because the discussions across the spherical haven’t been finalized.

The brand new funding reportedly goals to carry extra DeFi instruments and nonfungible token (NFT) choices to Uniswap. On the time of writing, Uniswap’s every day buying and selling volumes amounted to $1.1 billion, or about 57% of all buying and selling throughout international DEXs, based on information from DefiLlama. By comparability, Curve, the second-largest DEX after Uniswap by volumes, has about $205 million in every day volumes.

5 largest DEXes by every day buying and selling volumes. Supply: DeFi Llama

“Our mission is to unlock common possession and alternate,” Uniswap Labs chief working workplace Mary-Catherine Lader reportedly stated. “When you can embed the power to swap worth and have folks be part of the neighborhood and alternate worth along with your venture, or your organization or group — that’s a robust technique to permit extra folks to interact on this possession,” she added.

Uniswap Labs declined to verify or deny the report on the startup’s plans concerning the increase.

As beforehand reported by Cointelegraph, Uniswap has been in talks with multiple NFT lending protocols, concentrating on formidable plans to sort out liquidity points and the “data asymmetry” round NFTs. The Ethereum-based DEX has experienced a growing trend regardless of the bear market this 12 months.

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Launched in 2018, ​​Uniswap completed its first-ever funding spherical from the American crypto-focused funding agency Paradigm in 2019. The corporate additionally closed a Collection A funding spherical led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2020, with further investments from corporations like Paradigm, USV, Model One, Variant, Parafi Capital and others.