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UNISWAP FOUNDATION
NEW YORK, NY · EIN 883087770 · Form 990 · FY2024 · NTEE R12 · Civil Rights & Advocacy · Medium ($1M-$10M) · uniswapfoundation.org
revenue
$2.0M
expenses
$17.6M
net assets
$37.5M
employees
10
program ratio
74%
mission · from form 990

THE UNISWAP FOUNDATION SUPPORTS A COMMUNITY OF INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS DEDICATED TO A MORE OPEN, FAIR AND DECENTRALIZED FINANCIAL SYSTEM THROUGH EDUCATION.

profile · synthesized from sources

The Uniswap Foundation supports the growth, decentralization, and sustainability of decentralized finance by funding developers, researchers, infrastructure projects, and governance initiatives within the Uniswap ecosystem. It provides grants to accelerate innovation on the Uniswap Protocol, including support for developer tools, security audits, and DeFi research. Founded in 2022, the Foundation played a key role in advancing legal recognition for Uniswap Governance through the DUNI framework.

named programs · 5 · from sources

What they call their work

Conditional Funding Markets
Innovation in governance funding mechanisms, using futarchy models to allocate grants based on forecasted impact
DUNI Framework
Legal framework establishing a Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association for Uniswap Governance to enable legal recognition and on-chain agreements
Hook Design Lab
Provides technical mentorship, go-to-market support, and integration assistance to teams building v4 hooks on Uniswap
Security Fund
Supports security audits and expert guidance for ecosystem teams, including v4 audits and governance contract upgrades
Uniswap Hook Incubator
Developer program that onboards and supports builders creating new hooks for Uniswap v4, with technical and strategic guidance
activities · 2 groups

What they do

  • Privacy-Preserving Cybersecurity & Data Collaboration 1 activity
    • Subsidizing security audits and enhancing protocol security
      Enhances ecosystem security by subsidizing security audits for Uniswap protocol contributors, providing audit support and expert guidance to over 20 teams through more than 30 vetted providers, and supporting v4 audits, governance contract upgrades, and community bug bounties.
  • Uncategorized 7 activities
    • Advancing decentralized governance through structured on-chain processes
      Manages a multi-phase governance system including Temperature Check polls (5-day duration, 10M UNI vote threshold), Request for Comment periods (minimum 7 days), and on-chain proposals requiring 1M UNI delegation to submit, a 10-day voting period, and at least 40M UNI votes in favor to pass.
    • Conducting and publishing DeFi research
      Advances DeFi research by funding studies, launching TLDR—a research conference with over 400 global participants—and publishing the Uniswap Hooks Library with base implementations for custom accounting, asynchronous swaps, custom curves, and ready-to-use hooks such as sandwich protection.
    • Distributing developer-focused communications and incentives
      Produces a weekly newsletter for developers featuring updates, grant opportunities, and events, and implements incentive programs that have contributed to over $70 billion in decentralized exchange volume on Unichain and over $230 billion in cumulative trading volume on Uniswap v4.
    • Establishing legal recognition for Uniswap Governance via DUNA framework
      Proposed and facilitated adoption of DUNI, a Wyoming DUNA legal entity, to provide real-world legal recognition and operational autonomy for Uniswap Governance, which passed with 53 million votes in favor and zero opposed.
    • Funding development on Uniswap through grant programs
      Funds teams and projects across five focus areas: developers, infrastructure, governance, research, and security. Has committed over $40 million in grants, supporting more than 180 Unichain teams and 1,500 hook developers from over 60 countries.
    • Supporting DeFi developer capacity via incubation and training programs
      Operates the Uniswap Hook Incubator, Hook Design Lab, and Uniswap Hooks Institute to build developer capacity, resulting in over 20,000 hook initializations, $9.4 billion in hook trading volume, and graduation of 411 developers who contributed to over 341 hooks.
    • Supporting ecosystem innovation and protocol adoption
      Supports adoption of Uniswap v4 and related protocols, contributing to over $190 billion in trading volume on Uniswap v4 with 5,000 hooks initialized, and supporting projects like EulerSwap and Aegis, which achieved $3.7 billion and nearly $1 billion in trading volume respectively.
financials · form 990 · fy2024
revenue
Total revenue$1.97M
Contributions & grants$240K12%
Program service revenue$00%
Investment income$1.73M88%
Other revenue$0
expenses
Total expenses$17.57M
Program expenses74%
Admin / overhead26%
Fundraising0%
Salaries & benefits$4.79M
Grants paid out$9.99M
Largest expense lineCompensation
balance sheet
Total assets$37.54M
Cash$28.55M
Investments$0
Liabilities$0
Net assets$37.54M
Liquid reserves19.5 mo
3 years on record · 2022–2024 · YoY revenue -95.4%
leadership · form 990 part vii · fy2024

Who runs it

paid leadership · 7
NameTitleHours/wkCompensation
RAPHAELA SAPIRE COO 40 $926K
DEVIN WALSH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 40 $800K
KEN NG HEAD OF APPLIED RESEARCH, BOARD MEMBER 40 $730K
ERIN KOEN GOVERNANCE LEAD 40 $543K
TYLLEN BICAKCIC DEVELOPER RELATIONS LEAD 40 $437K
AARON LAMPHERE HEAD OF OPERATIONS AND GRANTS 40 $239K
BRIAN NISTLER GENERAL COUNSEL 40 $197K
board members · 1
  • HART LAMBUR — BOARD MEMBER
relationships · 16

Who they work with

  • Aegis Partner — Supported through Hook Design Lab; approached $1B in trading volume on Uniswap v4.
  • Circle Partner — Collaborates with Circle, as evidenced by participation in Uniswap initiatives by Circle's Chief Economist & Head of Research.
  • Coinbase Partner — Engages with Coinbase's Base Team, supporting collaborative development on Uniswap.
  • Crypto Academic Camp Partner — Hosted researcher forum leading to paper concepts on LP profitability, risk, and v4 adaptability.
  • DEX Analytics Portal Partner — Provided open, standardized analytics infrastructure for DEX research.
  • Doppler Partner — Developed price discovery and liquidity bootstrapping hook used by Zora with over 2 million pools initialized.
  • ETHGlobal Partner — Collaborated on hackathon sponsorship and developer outreach initiatives.
  • EulerSwap Partner — Supported through Hook Design Lab; achieved over $3.7B in trading volume on Uniswap v4.
  • Hayden Adams Partner — Co-announced a joint governance proposal with the founder of Uniswap to activate protocol fees and align ecosystem incentives.
  • Morpho Partner — Recipient of incentivized lending campaign and futarchy-based grant funding to grow Unichain TVL.
  • Tycho Partner — Integrated v4 hooks into its indexing system to enable accurate simulation and reliable execution.
  • Uniswap Network — Supports the Uniswap protocol and its community.
  • Uniswap Labs Partner — Collaborates with Uniswap Labs on governance proposals and ecosystem development; most of the Foundation's team and initiatives are expected to transition to Uniswap Labs.
  • Uniswap Labs Partner — Majority of Foundation team transitioned into Uniswap Labs for closer coordination on governance and ecosystem efforts.
  • Uniswap community Government — Received founding funding from the Uniswap community via approval of a governance proposal.
  • gov.uniswap.org Network — Participates in the Uniswap governance forum to coordinate community-driven decision-making.
strategies · 4

How they approach the work

Named approaches extracted from this org’s sources. Where others share an approach, follow it to see the full set of orgs running it.

  • Decentralized Infrastructure as Foundational Public Good
    methodology: decentralized_infrastructure_development
    By supporting the development, legal clarity, and sustainability of the Uniswap Protocol, the foundation establishes it as globally trusted, immutable infrastructure for digital value transfer because treating protocol governance and code as public goods ensures long-term resilience and broad-based trust.
  • Developer Incubation and Onboarding
    methodology: developer_incubation
    By connecting, onboarding, and supporting developers through structured programs like the Uniswap Hook Incubator and lifecycle support, the foundation grows a resilient global builder community because early-stage developer engagement increases innovation and reduces reliance on traditional funding channels.
  • Ecosystem-Shaping Grantmaking with Futarchy
    methodology: futarchy_based_funding
    By funding high-impact projects using futarchy—a market-based mechanism that allocates grants based on forecasted outcomes—the foundation shapes long-term DeFi ecosystem development because incentivizing predicted success improves resource efficiency and aligns investment with community-valued growth.
  • Phased, Informed Decentralized Governance
    methodology: phased_governance_with_feedback
    By using off-chain sentiment checks and phased governance with feedback loops, the foundation improves proposal quality and legitimacy because inclusive, low-cost deliberation before formal voting increases participation and reduces failed or contentious on-chain votes.