decrypt.co
Uniswap Labs, the crypto firm behind the DeFi trading platform Uniswap, has secured a spot in Apple’s App Store for their Wallet app.
The Uniswap Wallet iOS app is now live for users in the U.S. and other select countries, the company announced Tuesday.
“Apple approved the wallet for use in several countries throughout the world. We’ll continue to launch in other countries as soon as Apple lets us,” the announcement reads.
The Uniswap Wallet allows users to trade crypto assets on Ethereum’s mainnet as well as on Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. It also lets users buy crypto, see NFTdetails (but not trade them), select “favorite” tokens and wallet addresses, and explore different cryptocurrencies.
Last month, Uniswap launched the wallet to 10,000 early-access users through Apple’s testing platform, Apple TestFlight. In March, Uniswap said it didn’t know why Apple had previously refused to greenlight the app's launch on the Apple Store.
Now, that obstacle to launch appears to have been resolved for users in the U.S., United Kingdom, and France—but it’s unknown whether or when Apple will approve Uniswap’s app for use in other regions.
Uniswap Labs has also made the app’s code open-source and published it on GitHub.
Why is Uniswap’s app launch a big deal? While the trading platform’s NFT platform hasn’t seen substantial volume compared to leading marketplaces OpenSea and Blur, Uniswap remains the most popular Ethereum DeFi protocol with $4.26 billion in total value locked.
Uniswap’s mobile wallet already has plenty of competition, and will have to joust for user attention with the likes of MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and Robinhood’s wallet app, to name a few.
As Uniswap Labs continues to push for App store access, it’s worth noting that Apple’s relationship with crypto has historically been quite conservative, but sometimes ambiguous.
Apple recently tightened its stance on NFTs and ex-Apple App Store Director Phillip Shoemaker argued that Apple has always been anti-crypto “since day one.” But considering the fact that the Bitcoin whitepaper has long been hidden on Apple computers, Apple’s relationship with crypto appears to remain complicated—to say the least.