Uniswap Founder Says Banks Are Massive Scams
March 13 2023 - 1:30PM
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Hayden Adams, the founder of Uniswap, is convinced that banks are
“massive scams” compared to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Hayden Adams Thinks Banks Are Scams In a recent tweet, Adams
criticized banks’ low collateral requirement, adding that they also
pay only a “tiny percent” of their revenue to depositors. The
founder was also concerned about banks’ ability to “rug” users
anytime. If you compare banks to DeFi protocols you realize what a
massive scam they are Only 10% collateral requirements? Only a tiny
fraction of returns paid out to users? Users can get rugged at any
time? Feeling bad for everyone negatively affected by degen banks 🙁
— hayden.eth 🦄 (@haydenzadams) March 11, 2023 Commercial banks are
regulated entities. In the United States, they can comply with
state or federal laws depending on their licenses. Related
Reading: Over 167 Million BAT Utilized In DeFi Mainly In Compound,
Aave And Uniswap But considering the fractional reserve system,
banks must maintain a certain percentage of user deposits as
collateral. Accordingly, deposits may have to wait longer in case
of a bank run, a spike in customers’ withdrawal which drains the
financial institution’s liquidity. The 10% collateral
requirement means only a small percentage of the total deposits are
available for withdrawal. Hayden believes this system is flawed. In
crypto and DeFi, the mechanism is different; for instance, they
must maintain 100% collateral at any point. Banks loan the
remaining 90% of deposits in this fractional reserve system at
higher interest rates. However, the yield distributed to holders of
saving accounts is relatively lower. While this is advantageous for
banks as they don’t have to hold a vast amount of capital while
also being open for regulation, the end user, the depositor, is
inconvenienced if these banks fail. Last week, Silicon Valley Bank
(SVB) experienced a bank run last week, and it was placed under
California regulators’ Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
receivership. Many users and businesses, including Circle, the
issuer of the fiat-backed stablecoin, USDC, had exposure and
couldn’t access funds over the weekend. It is this
limitation, and the fragility of banks that Hayden thinks make the
very base layer of the global financial system a “massive scam.”
The United States Federal Reserve has since stated that it will
only bail out depositors, not the bank. Uniswap Drew Users After
USDC De-Pegging DeFi protocols are autonomous and guided by smart
contracts. Platforms like Uniswap operate every day of the week on
several blockchains, including Ethereum, facilitating swaps.
Related Reading: DeFiLlama Releases Special Uniswap v3 Router For
Optimism Over the years, Uniswap has emerged as one of the largest
decentralized exchanges in the world. UNI is its governance token.
Amid the de-pegging of USDC, Uniswap posted the highest daily
trading volume, reaching $11.41 billion. Yesterday had the highest
daily USD volume ever on the @Uniswap Protocol! $11.84b, almost
double the second place day.@DuneAnalytics: https://t.co/KMQxfmlIlo
pic.twitter.com/pn9X9yBNHq — Austin Adams (@AustinAdams10) March
12, 2023 As of writing on March 13, Uniswap had a total
value locked (TVL) of $3.56 billion, according to data from
DeFiLlama. Feature Image From Justin Sullivan/Getty Images,
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