Uniswap Wants to Put Down Legal Roots in Wyoming — Without Losing Its Decentralized Soul

Uniswap, the heavyweight in decentralized crypto trading, is looking to give its DAO a shiny new legal backbone — and it’s picking Wyoming as home base.

The Uniswap Foundation just proposed creating “DUNI,” a legally recognized version of its governance structure that would operate under Wyoming’s Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association (DUNA) law. Passed in 2024, this framework was tailor-made for DAOs, giving them formal legal status while letting them stay, well, decentralized.

The idea is pretty simple: keep Uniswap’s permissionless, community-driven governance intact, but wrap it in a structure that can sign contracts, hire service providers, meet tax obligations, and even defend itself in court if needed. If approved, Uniswap would be the biggest DAO ever to run under this system.

And yes — there’s real money involved. The proposal gives DUNI $16.5 million in UNI tokens, most of it to settle old tax bills (expected to be under $10 million) and set aside a legal defense war chest. The new setup would also open the door for something governance nerds have been talking about for years: turning on protocol fees. That would let a slice of liquidity provider fees flow straight into the DAO’s treasury.

“This framework unlocks what the DAO can do — transactions, agreements, partnerships — while protecting the people who participate in governance,” said Uniswap Foundation general counsel Brian Nistler. “It sets the stage for a future fee switch vote and formalizes what’s already happening, without messing with decentralization.”

Under DUNA rules, DAOs can’t hand out dividends, but they can pay service providers or reimburse expenses. The proposal also includes $75,000 to Cowrie, an advisory firm co-founded by David Kerr — one of the architects of the Wyoming law — to act as DUNI’s administrator.

Wyoming’s own Senator Cynthia Lummis is already cheering from the sidelines, calling the state’s digital asset laws “best-in-class” and praising Uniswap for choosing her state as its legal home.

If the community greenlights the plan, DUNI could become a model for other DAOs struggling with the same challenge: how to stay decentralized while still playing by the rules. And in a crypto landscape where some projects are quietly re-centralizing for “efficiency,” Uniswap seems to be betting on the opposite — proving that legal compliance and decentralization don’t have to be sworn enemies.

CoinGape and the Block contributed to this report.