I had a chance to talk recently with a young entrepreneur in Nairobi, Kenya, named Aisha. She’d read about DeFi, and how people could create passive income by providing liquidity to pools. Aisha, like many of her community, finds herself underserved by traditional financial services. You know, the real ones, the ones we grew up with, not the fake ones – proper savings accounts or low-interest loans kind of real. DeFi, she thought, could be a game-changer. Her experience was a far cry from the utopian experience usually depicted. Though Jennifer only ever expected to make small investments, gas fees continually ate into her returns. As she floundered on the platform, frustration and insecurity soon set in. Aisha's story, while anecdotal, highlights a critical question: Is Uniswap's revolution truly inclusive, or just another game for the privileged few?

Revolutionizing Finance or Replicating Inequality?

Uniswap has about $3 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL). In fact, its daily trading volumes are more than the centralized exchange behemoths, which makes it a powerful player in the crypto ecosystem. Vitalik Buterin’s exploration of automated market makers motivated Hayden Adams to develop a trading system that would be trustless and permissionless. He fought giants like Coinbase in his noble pursuit. In many ways, he succeeded. The Automated Market Maker (AMM) model has been a game-changer. With token swaps being inherently seamless, the lack of KYC requirements enables access for many that remain excluded from traditional finance. Let’s not kid ourselves – access does not equal equity.

Think about it. The current promise behind DeFi lies in its decentralization. Does that mean it is inherently democratizing? Does proximity to a casino guarantee that everyone walks away a winner? Look at the stock market. Almost anyone with a brokerage account can participate in it. In reality, an infinitesimal portion of the population continues to control an outrageous share of riches. Uniswap, in its current state, threatens to do just that.

Impermanent loss, high gas fees, and the ever-present threat of rug pulls stand as significant barriers to entry for the average person. Those who don’t have the technical capacity or access to enough capital are doubly challenged in trying to break into market. To improve scalability and lessen the burden of high transaction fees, Uniswap has embraced layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism. These solutions aren’t the panacea for all problems. For someone like Aisha, even a few cents on gas fees might be too much.

Whose Community is Really Being Served?

Uniswap’s UNI governance token set aside 40% of its initial distribution to the community. We think this step strongly encourages community control. Of UNI’s total genesis supply, 60% was reserved for the community, with 15% going to early adopters and liquidity providers. And how many tokens ever made it into the hands of regular users, such as Aisha? In contrast, how much of it ended up in the pockets of whales and early adopters already heavily invested in the ecosystem? While the distribution appeared extremely democratic, whether or not it truly changed the distribution of wealth is up for dispute.

For them, the UNI airdrop and subsequent incentive programs were enough to create loyalty and engagement. These incentives disproportionately benefit the people who are most likely to already have the capital to invest. Take liquidity mining, as an example—liquidity providers can earn rewards for seeding liquidity pools. As you can see, this is great news for the big investors with whale holdings! What are her alternatives, as an Aisha who can only save $50 a month? She’s just about subsidizing the returns of those who are better off to start.

Hayden Adams, as a very smart and respected leader of a nascent industry, is under no obligation to clear this muck. His involvement on social media as @haydenzadams and in many different media appearances is inspiring. Now, he needs to put some action behind those words. We’re going to need more than platitudes and goodwill aimed at the notion of financial inclusion. We’re looking for clear and specific actions to improve access and equity in DeFi.

Can We Redefine DeFi's "Success"?

Uniswap’s vision of onboarding billions of users with v4 and Unichain is lofty. Even more advanced are the new futuristic “hooks” introduced in v4 which provide developers with powerful new capabilities to customize pools. The Infinite Hackathon, offering monthly grants for projects built on Unichain, is impressive. These innovations must not be at the expense of inclusivity. Don’t you think that real success should be about more than TVL and trading volume? How about the share of users from underserved communities who are truly thriving on the platform?

Uniswap purposely focuses on terms like “decentralized liquidity” and “community ownership.” This approach deeply resonates with DeFi-centric developers and community members, and it quietly brings institutional interest as well. They’ve partnered with Fireblocks and Coinbase to offer custody solutions. All of this underscores their ambition to position themselves to maximize the attraction of institutional capital. As these institutions start entering this space themselves, will they continue to put people before profit? Or will they deepen the inequities that are already present?

We should be asking for better from DeFi primitives like Uniswap. We have an obligation to hold them accountable for their social impact. This means:

  • Prioritizing user education: Creating accessible resources to help newcomers navigate the complexities of DeFi.
  • Developing solutions to mitigate gas fees: Exploring alternative layer-2 solutions or gas fee subsidies for low-income users.
  • Implementing robust security measures: Protecting users from scams and rug pulls.
  • Actively engaging with underserved communities: Understanding their needs and tailoring solutions to meet them.

Done right, DeFi can help achieve the Crypto Dream — to unlock crypto’s transformative potential on finance itself, creating a more inclusive and equitable system. It's not guaranteed. It takes deliberate action, purposeful development, and a devotion to social equity. Let’s not make Uniswap’s $3 billion revolution the latest installment in the series where the house always wins. Now’s the moment to call for a DeFi that really serves us all—beyond just the privileged elite. Well what are you doing about it.