Uniswap (UNI) perpetual market

Uniswap is the largest decentralized exchange and the protocol that popularized automated market making. Launched on Ethereum in 2018 by Hayden Adams, it lets anyone swap tokens directly from a wallet without an order book or intermediary, pricing trades against pooled liquidity supplied by users who earn a share of fees. Its automated market maker model, where prices move along a formula as pools are traded against, became the template for decentralized finance and was copied across nearly every blockchain. The UNI token, distributed in a landmark 2020 airdrop to past users, governs the protocol, letting holders vote on upgrades and treasury decisions. Later versions introduced concentrated liquidity for greater capital efficiency. As core infrastructure processing enormous volume, Uniswap is a bellwether for on-chain trading and a frequent focal point in debates over how decentralized protocols should be regulated.