Uniswap Labs acquires NFT marketplace Genie

Uniswap Labs, the principle developer of the Uniswap decentralized trade protocol, mentioned on Tuesday that it has acquired non-fungible token (NFT) market aggregator Genie.

The transfer marks a part of its enlargement effort to incorporate NFTs and ERC-20 tokens amongst its merchandise, in response to a press release from the corporate on Tuesday. 

The combination will embody the Uniswap net app, which permits customers to commerce NFTs throughout all main marketplaces. The transfer will occur as quickly as this fall, the corporate tweeted. 

Uniswap may even combine NFTs into its developer APIs and widgets to make the platform “complete … for customers and builders in web3.”

“We see NFTs as one other format for worth within the rising digital economic system — not a separate ecosystem from ERC20 — they usually’re already an vital gateway to web3,” Uniswap mentioned within the assertion.

The acquisition won’t have an effect on Uniswap’s different merchandise, such because the Uniswap Protocol, Uniswap Governance or the UNI token. Genie customers may nonetheless entry {the marketplace} web site till the brand new Uniswap NFT expertise is accessible.

As a part of the acquisition, Uniswap will airdrop USDC to Genie customers who used {the marketplace} greater than as soon as earlier than April 15 or to people who maintain a GENIE:GEM NFT.

Uniswap has beforehand ventured into the world of NFT. In 2019, the developer launched Unisocks, an NFT liquidity pool that issued tokens representing a pair of restricted version socks, and a number of other NFTs backed by actual world property. 

Uniswap has the biggest share of the market by way of commerce quantity since final 12 months. The developer noticed over $1 trillion in crypto traded on the decentralized trade (DEX) protocol final month.