BlackRock makes a major move into DeFi: BUIDL launches on UniswapX and plans to buy UNI tokens

On February 12, Uniswap Labs announced a partnership with Securitize, allowing BUIDL under BlackRock to be traded via UniswapX. This marks BlackRock’s first direct involvement in the DeFi space, supporting qualified institutional investors (whitelisted with an asset threshold of at least $50 million) to trade using stablecoins. Additionally, BlackRock stated it will purchase Uniswap tokens UNI, though the specific amount has not been disclosed. Following this news, the UNI price surged briefly by 00%, jumping from approximately $3.3 to $4.5, and has since fallen back to $3.5. The crypto community views this as a milestone in the deep integration of TradFi and DeFi. BlackRock manages over $14 trillion in assets, and choosing Uniswap signifies a strong endorsement of DeFi infrastructure, with UNI seen as a beneficiary. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said, “This is an important day for DeFi. This partnership leverages Uniswap’s market structure to provide on-chain trading for BUIDL investors, settled on Ethereum. It’s a significant step toward ‘almost all value being tradable on-chain.’” Renowned crypto investor William Mougayar stated, “Extremely bullish on Ethereum. Uniswap is the largest infrastructure on Ethereum. Starting with BUIDL and funds managed by BlackRock, other tokenized assets will follow quickly.” Tony Edward, founder of Thinking Crypto Podcast, said, “Major adoption of cryptocurrencies—BlackRock is embracing DeFi.” However, some community users noted that trading is limited by whitelists and RFQ mechanisms, with initial liquidity being limited and not fully open AMM. BlackRock has previously expanded BUIDL on chains like Polygon; this move appears more as an extension of DeFi rather than a “first entry.”