I just found out that the federal court in New York has finally permanently dismissed a long-running class-action lawsuit against Uniswap Labs and its founder. And this ruling is quite symbolic for the entire DeFi ecosystem.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed all remaining claims with prejudice, prohibiting re-filing. The case began back in April 2022, when investors Nessa Risley and others sought accountability for losses from fraudulent tokens traded through the Uniswap interface. They alleged that the platform facilitated the sale of unregistered securities and enabled large-scale fraud.

But here’s the key point: the court found that Uniswap Labs did not have actual knowledge of the specific frauds. Complaints received after the losses—general warnings on social media about scam tokens—aren’t enough to prove wrongdoing. Even the fact that Uniswap provided a trading platform is not considered involvement in fraud. The court literally compared it to traditional exchanges: providing market access, even if bad actors are present there, is not the same as complicity in a crime.

This is already the third round of court battles. Federal securities claims were dismissed back in August 2023, and then the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit confirmed the decision in February 2025. This time, the plaintiffs reworded the lawsuit, focusing on aiding and abetting, negligent misrepresentation, and violations of consumer protection laws in multiple states. But these claims also failed.

In her ruling, Judge Failla noted that even after three attempts, the plaintiffs still failed to present plausible claims. As for unjust enrichment, Uniswap Labs did not derive direct profit from these transactions during the period at issue—the optional fee switch was never activated.

Hayden Adams commented on the win on X, noting that if you write open-source code and scammers use it, the scammers—not the developers—are responsible. Makes sense, right?

Brian Nistler, General Counsel of the Uniswap Foundation, wrote that this is yet another landmark decision for DeFi. Federal charges have already been dropped, and now all state lawsuits have been dismissed as well.

What does this mean going forward? The court made it clear: creating decentralized infrastructure by itself does not equate to organizing fraud. This is an important signal for the whole ecosystem. Questions about regulatory gaps in DeFi are better addressed through Congress rather than through an expansive judicial interpretation. It remains unclear whether there will be further appeals, but after several rounds of legal changes, the legal landscape now appears quite limited.