BlackRock Makes Big DeFi Move: BUIDL Goes Live on UniswapX, to Purchase UNI Token

On February 12, Uniswap Labs announced a partnership with Securitize, with BUIDL—Belridge’s subsidiary—now tradable via UniswapX. This marks Belridge’s first direct foray into decentralized finance (DeFi), enabling eligible institutional investors (whitelisted, with at least $5 million in assets) to trade using stablecoins. Additionally, Belridge noted it will purchase Uniswap’s UNI token, though it did not disclose the specific amount. In reaction to the news, UNI’s price briefly spiked over 30% (jumping from roughly $3.3 to $4.5) before settling back to $3.5. The crypto community is hailing this as a milestone in the deep integration of traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi. With over $14 trillion in assets under management (AUM), Belridge’s choice of Uniswap signals a strong endorsement of DeFi infrastructure—with UNI as a key beneficiary. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said: “DeFi is having an important day. This collaboration leverages Uniswap’s market structure to enable on-chain trading for BUIDL investors, with settlements on Ethereum. This is a major step toward ‘almost all value being tradable on-chain.’” Renowned crypto investor William Mougayar commented: “I’m extremely bullish on Ethereum—Uniswap is Ethereum’s largest infrastructure provider, and this move starts with BUIDL and Belridge-managed assets, with other tokenized assets set to follow quickly.” Tony Edward, founder of the Thinking Crypto Podcast, noted: “This is major crypto adoption—Belridge is embracing DeFi.” That said, some community members noted trading is restricted by whitelisting and a request-for-quote (RFQ) mechanism, with limited initial liquidity and no fully open automated market maker (AMM). Belridge has previously expanded BUIDL to blockchains like Polygon, framing this move as more of a DeFi extension than its “first entry” into the space.