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⌐◪-◪ → Uniswap Just Dodged a Bullet—And So Did DeFi

The SEC has officially closed its investigation into Uniswap Labs with no enforcement action—a major win for DeFi.

Since 2021, the SEC had been trying to paint Uniswap as an unregistered broker, exchange, and clearing agency while claiming UNI was a security. Now, those charges are gone.

Uniswap’s CEO, Hayden Adams, slammed the case as arbitrary enforcement, saying the SEC tried to force DeFi into a regulatory framework that doesn’t fit. He also called out the toll—both financially and personally—reminding us that in U.S. regulation, “the investigation IS the punishment.”

This isn’t just a victory for Uniswap; it’s a signal that the SEC is backing off its attack on DeFi under new leadership. But the fight isn’t over—Uniswap is pushing for real regulatory clarity to keep innovation in the U.S.

For now, one thing is clear: DeFi just got a green light.

⌐◪-◪ → Ethereum Foundation backs Tornado Cash dev.

The Ethereum Foundation just put up $1.25M to support the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer convicted of money laundering.

This case has been a flashpoint for privacy in crypto. Tornado Cash—a protocol designed to obscure transaction history—was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022, and Pertsev was sentenced to 64 months in prison for his role in developing it. He’s now appealing while under electronic monitoring.

Ethereum Foundation’s stance is clear, “Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.” They’re not alone—Paradigm also donated $1.25M to support another Tornado Cash dev, Roman Storm, who’s facing charges in the U.S.

If Pertsev’s conviction stands, it could set a dangerous precedent, where building open-source privacy tools makes you criminally liable. If he wins, it could embolden developers to continue innovating in privacy tech.

The fight over financial privacy in crypto isn’t going away anytime soon.

⌐◪-◪ → Ethereum is getting a serious cryptographic upgrade

Ethereum researchers are pushing to integrate Poseidon, a new cryptographic hash function, to improve zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) ahead of the Pectra upgrade.

Poseidon is optimized for ZKPs, using 8x fewer constraints per bit than traditional hash functions like SHA-256—meaning faster, cheaper proofs. This could make rollups like zkSync and StarkNet more efficient, cutting costs and boosting Ethereum’s scalability.

Vitalik Buterin is urging deeper cryptographic analysis before moving forward—because while Poseidon looks promising, it hasn’t been as battle-tested as SHA-256. A proposal from 2022 (EIP 5988) already suggests adding Poseidon as an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) precompile, making it easier to use in smart contracts.

If Poseidon is integrated, Ethereum could see a major leap in privacy, scalability, and efficiency—but only if the cryptographers give it the green light. Of course, there are many ways it could go wrong executionally and with marketing/narratives.

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