A long-running lawsuit against Uniswap Labs came to an end on Monday after a federal judge dismissed claims that the company was responsible for scam tokens and “rug pulls” traded on its platform.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the class action with prejudice, ruling that Uniswap cannot be held liable for alleged fraud by unidentified third-party token issuers. She noted that while Uniswap provides a platform where fraud could occur, that does not mean the company assisted in committing it.
“Plaintiffs are basically alleging that Defendants substantially assisted fraud by providing ordinary services that anyone could use for lawful purposes, but that some used for unlawful purposes,” Judge Failla wrote.
The lawsuit, originally filed in April 2022, sought to hold Uniswap Labs and its founder, Hayden Adams, accountable for so-called rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes. The plaintiffs later amended their complaint in May 2023 to focus on state-level consumer protection violations, but the court found insufficient factual evidence to support liability.
Adams described the ruling as a “good, sensible outcome,” emphasizing that creating open-source smart contract code does not make a developer responsible for how others use it. Industry figures, including the founder of Aave, also celebrated the decision as a positive precedent for decentralized finance.
Following the news, Uniswap’s UNI token rallied nearly 6% to $3.92 before settling around $3.88.
