Uniswap Latest to Delist Tokenized Stocks From Platform Over Regulatory Concerns

Leading DeFi protocol Uniswap has announced a decision to restrict access to some tokens, including Tether Gold and tokenized stocks, offered on its app in the wake of increasing regulatory scrutiny on similar products by its competitors. The company made this announcement via a blog post on Friday, July 23, adding that this affects a small segment of the overall volume of activity on the platform.

The decision was in all likelihood triggered after cryptocurrency lender BlockFi faces mounting pressure from investigations into whether its offerings violate local securities laws across several US states. The company’s offering, BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) is now under investigation across four states – Alabama, New Jersey, Texas and now Vermont, preventing the company from opening new accounts at the moment.

In addition to the latest decision taken by Uniswap and the increased scrutiny on BlockFi, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance has also cancelled their tokenized stock products recently. Last week, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler made it clear during a speech at the American Bar Association that tokenized stock offerings on centralized as well as decentralized exchanges must register with the Commission and comply with trade reporting rules.

But it’s not just tokenized securities that are coming under regulators’ glare lately. Regulators are going after some stablecoins as well, insisting that they should also comply with existing laws that govern securities. According to Gensler, “Make no mistake: It doesn’t matter whether it’s a stock token, a stable value token backed by securities, or any other virtual product that provides synthetic exposure to underlying securities. These platforms – whether in the decentralized or centralized finance space – are implicated by the securities laws and must work within our securities regime.”