Uniswap, Ethereum’s largest decentralized exchange by volume, is looking to expand into consumer finance at least according to a deleted YouTube video from the EthCC conference that was held in Paris last week.
In a talk at the event, Ashleigh Schap, Uniswap’s growth lead, said the team behind the trading protocol is in talks with well-known fintech companies to provide decentralized finance (DeFi) to the mainstream. (In a nod to the virtues of the decentralized web, the video is still available on IPFS.)
“We’re trying to put Uniswap and the rest of DeFi right there in those applications so that we can bring the dream of open, 100% uptime liquidity to the whole world,” Schap said. “PayPal wants to talk to us, E*Trade wants to talk to us, Stripe wants to talk to us.”
Uniswap Labs, EthCC, PayPal, E*Trade and Stripe did not reply to CoinDesk’s requests for comment.
After publication of this article, founder Hayden Adams tweeted that Uniswap Labs has not partnered with the companies mentioned in the EthCC talk. He said the video was deleted at Uniswap’s request because “we thought [it] could be interpreted to suggest we have relationships that we don’t.”
According to Schap’s presentation, Uniswap is looking to build partnerships between consumer finance and DeFi using intermediary firms like Fireblocks, Paxos and Talos. Notably, Paxos built the platform that powers PayPal’s crypto service.
The partnerships could allow DeFi protocols to mesh into existing fintech offerings in a bid to provide a larger variety of assets, instant settlement and 24/7 accessibility.
