Uniswap

How it works

Uniswap is the largest decentralized exchange (DEX): swapping coins straight from your own wallet, without an intermediary company and without registration. Unlike an ordinary exchange like Binance, here no one holds your funds — you swap by interacting with a smart contract, not with a company. This changes both the upsides and the risks.

• Type — DEX. Trades are matched not by a company but by a smart contract. It works on the “automated market maker” model: instead of an order book — shared liquidity pools, out of which you swap one thing for another.1
• “Uniswap” is layers, not one whole. There is the protocol (open smart contracts anyone can use), and on top — the Uniswap Labs interface (the official app) and a wallet, plus third-party interfaces. Buying with fiat goes through third-party providers, which may have their own KYC. So “no registration” is about the protocol itself; a specific interface or on-ramp may have its own conditions.
• Control — yours. The coins do not sit “on the exchange”: you connect your wallet and swap straight from it. There is no separate “withdrawal” — the funds are already yours.
• KYC and registration — none for the protocol: no account is needed, only a wallet. But a fiat on-ramp in the interface may require verification.
• Networks — Ethereum and others; for operations you pay gas (see what is gas).
• The UNI token — a governance token: it gives a vote in decisions about the protocol (see what is a token), not a share or “stock”.

Who it suits, who it does not

• Suits: those who want a swap without an intermediary, already have a wallet, and understand what approve is (see wallet connection safety).
• Suits less: a complete beginner for a first purchase — an exchange with a card is simpler (see how to buy crypto); and those not ready to answer for signatures and addresses themselves.