Uniswap Founder Accuses Citadel of Lobbying the SEC for “Centralized” Regulation of DeFi

On December 4, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams accused global market maker Citadel Securities of attempting to undermine the DeFi sector by lobbying regulators.

Adams posted on social media platform X, publicly naming and criticizing Citadel Securities CEO Ken Griffin, alleging that Griffin successfully intervened in the 2021 "ConstitutionDAO" auction and is now leveraging his influence to push the SEC to classify DeFi protocol developers as "centralized intermediaries" and subject them to regulation.

Adams believes Citadel’s lobbying efforts are not motivated by concerns over investor protection or market fairness, but rather stem from traditional financial institutions’ fundamental rejection of the decentralized finance model.

He specifically mocked the criticism that DeFi protocols cannot provide "fair access," pointing out the absurdity of such accusations coming from traditional market makers who have long lobbied behind the scenes and enjoyed privileged market access.

In summary, the core of this controversy centers on whether DeFi protocols represented by Uniswap—by virtue of their open-source, automated, and permissionless nature—should be subject to traditional regulatory frameworks and the strict oversight applied to conventional brokerages.

Adams’ stance represents DeFi creators’ opposition to regulators imposing centralized controls on decentralized systems. This debate and the feedback from the community may potentially influence the development of DeFi regulatory rules in the US and worldwide.

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