Key Takeaways:
- According to Uniswap co-founder Hayden Adams, Sam Bankman-Fried’s payment for Uniswap.com was valued at seven figures.
- After the Uniswap team refused to purchase the domain, Adams says it was later redirected to a rival Uniswap fork.
- After all, legal staff at Uniswap are able to secure the domain, and not pay for it, as Adams reported.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams has disclosed a new angle in the issue that compelled the famous exchange to block access to its website Uniswap.com, citing the involvement of the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Fun fact, the og owners of https://t.co/bRvDs5brca wanted 7 figures, but we refused to pay that amount
So SBF bought it (for 7 figures) and pointed it to a fork – I guess to flex / mess with us
This malicious use of the domain was enough for our legal team to get it for free https://t.co/ZV0yJhdvZg
— Hayden Adams 🦄 (@haydenzadams) September 20, 2026
SBF Bought the Domain After Uniswap Refused
According to Adams the original owners of Uniswap.com requested a price of seven figures, but Uniswap was not willing to pay that price.
Later, Bankman-Fried paid for the same domain name for the equivalent of a seven-figure amount, according to Adams. He said the domain was then redirected to the Uniswap fork, which is an attempt to “mess with” or flex the project.
Not exactly how much SBF paid was not disclosed by Adams. “seven figures” is simply an indicator that the price range was at least $1 million and not more than $10 million.
This incident had occurred long before FTX’s collapse in November 2022 when Binance’s founder was one of the top names in the crypto sector.
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WIPO Later Ordered the Domain Transferred
The matter of the domain name eventually ended up with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
In September 2021, WIPO ruled that Uniswap was being redirected to a particular page on SushiSwap, another decentralized exchange that is also active on the same market. The panel determined that the domain is the same as the Uniswap trademark, and decided for the transfer to UNISWAP Labs (the company behind the crypto-exchange Uniswap).
In addition, WIPO’s database supersedes that the domain was registered by the respondent on 07 April 2021. The ruling did not name the buyer, which is Bankman-Fried, but it did rule in favor of the transfer. That’s from the account of Adams just revealed.
Adams Also Reposted a Separate Domain Joke
A separate post from co-founder and CEO of Parafield, Justin Liao, was also mentioned in Adams’ post.
Liao joked that “this guy is serious” and gave a pointing finger at a16z.vc. An attached screen shot indicated that Evan Frawley was standing before a crowd at a16z, and was asking anyone who wants a domain to reach out to him on Twitter.
Later Liao clarified that his post was not directed at anyone. He had just seen that @2048vc had used the .vc domain, and he was curious so he proceeded to investigate which got him the screenshot.
The transaction that prompted Adams to repost and seems to have garnered a bunch of interest in the crypto community is unrelated to the Uniswap affair, but also provides some context for the subject of his post.
The major update that Adams provided is the fact that SBF used 7 figures to buy into Uniswap.com and that the site eventually bought it through legitimate means, not paying the original asking price.
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