A federal court has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Uniswap Labs after a four-year trial. Judge Katherine Polk Failla found the plaintiffs failed to allege that the company or its founder, Hayden Adams, had knowledge of or assisted in fraud related to scam tokens traded on its protocol. The dismissal with prejudice follows multiple amended complaints and an appeal, marking a significant legal outcome for the decentralized exchange.
A United States federal court has dismissed with prejudice a class action lawsuit accusing Uniswap Labs of facilitating scam token trades. The trial concluded after over four years of proceedings.
According to a filing with the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the case for several reasons. The judge ruled the plaintiffs failed to allege the defendants’ knowledge of the alleged fraud.
The plaintiffs had argued Uniswap served as a marketplace for the tokens and effectively sold them as unregistered broker-dealers. They claimed this was done by drafting smart contracts for the protocol’s native UNI token.
An earlier amended complaint was dismissed in August 2023 for failure to state a claim under federal securities laws. The Second Circuit court later affirmed this dismissal in part in February 2025, allowing the plaintiffs to amend again.
The subsequent second amended complaint focused on state-law violations against the remaining defendants, Uniswap Labs and founder Hayden Adams. The court again found the claims implausible and granted the motion to dismiss.
Judge Failla stated, “Even if Plaintiffs had adequately alleged Defendants’ actual knowledge, their claim would still fail because they have not alleged that Defendants provided substantial assistance to the issuers’ fraud.” Adams commented on the dismissal, calling it a “good, sensible outcome.”
