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Hayden Adams, one of the youngest crypto founders of today, earned his place among the crypto OGs by founding Uniswap as a cryptocurrency exchange decentralized and controlled by smart contracts rather than people. Uniswap is one of the most widely used crypto applications today. It has laid the foundations for DeFi.

Hayden Adams began working on Uniswap's first version as a hobby project to hone coding skills. His foray into Ethereum paid off in spades, making Adams, 32, a multimillionaire, and a hero to the crypto degens.

Also read: Jesse Powell's Net Worth: Just How Rich is the Founder of Kraken Crypto Exchange, Jesse Powell?

Hayden Adams’ journey is a heartwarming success story for crypto entrepreneurs and leaders. It serves as inspiration to individuals who are striving to be successful in a highly competitive industry. You've come to the right place if you are interested in how Adams created Uniswap, and what made it so successful. Learn more about Hayden Adams' net worth, Uniswap and its impact on crypto.

Hayden Adams' age, background and education

Hayden Adams, born October 21, 1992 in New York City, United States, was raised there. Hayden Adams prefers to keep the details of his family and early life private. Adams graduated from Stony Brook University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

Adams worked for Columbia University Medical Center while he was pursuing his degree at Stony Brook University. He developed a search algorithm to retrieve relevant articles from the PubMed Database. After completing his degree, Adams began working for Siemens where he was in charge of performing engineering simulations within the automotive and aerospace industry. Adams, who had been working at Siemens for more than a year, was let go from the company late in 2017. He found himself at a crossroads, not knowing what to do with his life.

The creation of Uniswap

Hayden Adams, feeling down about his future and worried, sought the advice of Karl Floersch who was at the time working for the Ethereum Foundation. Floersch encouraged him to explore the Ethereum blockchain by describing it as a field with great potential. Adams, who lacked the necessary coding knowledge, took on the challenge. He spent the next two month learning the basics of Ethereum Solidity and JavaScript.

Hayden Adams chose a real-world project to expand his skill set: a decentralized cryptocurrency trading platform that relies on automated market makers, controlled by smart contracts without any human trust. Alan Lu, a Gnosis employee, came up with the idea. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin then developed it further, hoping that this novel concept would be more popular among DeFi enthusiasts and builders.

Hayden Adams gave it a shot. He worked from October to November 2017 on the proof-of concept for the first version Uniswap. It consisted of a one-pager with a single liquidity provider. Adams' POC had a better UX than EtherDelta at the time, which was the only decentralized exchange that gained traction.

Hayden Adams learned a lot about writing smart contracts while creating the first demo for Uniswap. However, he lived off the crypto he managed to accumulate earlier in the year. After reviewing the Uniswap Demo, Pascal van Hecke, a smart contract developer, reached out to Adams and offered him mentorship as well as a grant for his next month's work on the project.

As time went on, Uniswap became more than a hobby project for Hayden Adams. He was so enamored with Ethereum's core principles of decentralization, censorship resistance and transparency that he set a more ambitious goal.

"I started thinking about Uniswap as a tool not only for myself, but also for others. I couldn't imagine a world in which it was competing with "real" project. You know -- those that raised between 20,000,000 and 150,000,000 dollars in Summer 2017. Hayden Adams, writing on the Uniswap Labs Blog, said that it might serve as a good example of an Ethereum-based application.

The dev team grew as Uniswap developed, adding two new members who helped Adams with the frontend, which was lagging. By April 2018, Uniswap's founder had seen his crypto holdings plummet by 75%. This drastically reduced his personal runway. Hayden Adams was encouraged to apply for a grant by Vitalik Buterin after a short exchange at a crypto conference.

Hayden Adams, armed with a grant, prepared himself for the last effort before releasing the protocol. The team conducted a code review and modified smart contracts so that they always favored liquidity providers rather than traders. They also audited protocol security and implemented new frontend design.

Uniswap was launched in Prague on the final day of Devcon 4's conference, November 2, 2018. Hayden Adams originally named the exchange Unipeg, a mix of pegasus (a unicorn) and pegasus (a horse). However, Vitalik Buterin suggested the name Uniswap.

Uniswap token airdrop

Uniswap quickly rose to prominence as a leader in the decentralized finance industry. Uniswap, despite its rapid rise to prominence in decentralized finance, still lacked a native token as of September 2020 - nearly two years after it was launched. Hayden Adams noted at the start of his work with Uniswap that many Ethereum projects from the ICO era had been designed around the idea of a token, without the need for one. This was not the future he wanted for his project.

Token governance was needed to ensure self-sustainability, community ownership and to allow for shared community ownership of the decentralized exchange. Governance tokens in DeFi give token holders voting rights within the decentralized autonomous organisation (DAO) which steers the protocol's development. The voting power is directly proportional to tokens owned by each member.

Uniswap, with the goal of neutrality and minimization of trust, created UNI. The new token was airdropped to all users who have ever used the exchange. On September 17, 2020 400 UNI tokens will be distributed to over 250,000 accounts. The airdrop, which was worth more than $1400 at the moment, generously compensated early adopters of the protocol. It naturally gained widespread community attention. Within a month, nearly 91% of the assets were claimed by eligible accounts. Three years after the airdrop, over 30,000 wallets have not claimed their UNI bags. This leaves over $84,000,000 worth of tokens untouched.

Uniswap and decentralized finance

Uniswap v4's history is marked by continuous innovation. It has set new standards in the field of decentralized financial services. Take a look at a small pet project that reshaped crypto.

Uniswap was the first decentralized exchange in November 2018 to introduce the Constant Product Market Maker model (CPMM). Uniswap, instead of relying solely on order book solutions, allows anyone to provide liquidity to a pool of two tokens by putting up an equivalent amount of both assets in exchange for pool tokens. These pool tokens track the value deposited assets, and can be redeemed at any time. The liquidity providers can also earn fees on trades made in the pool.

The pairs of tokens in the pool act as automated market-makers, rebalancing both tokens' prices and allowing the users to exchange one asset for another. The ratio between the two tokens within the pool is altered when a trade takes place, and this in turn affects their relative price. Arbitrage opportunities are created by any divergences in the process.

Uniswap's new token swap approach was a catalyst in DeFi’s evolution. It opened up new horizons, including yield farming and liquidity mining, for the decentralized economic system. It has also led to new financial instruments, including DEX aggregators, which are specialized protocols searching for the lowest prices on all exchanges, and directing users towards the best trading outcomes.

Uniswap, in addition to its role in the development of a decentralized governance paradigm, also sparked some new narratives, popularizing retroactive token airdrops to transfer protocol ownership from the central authority to the community. After Uniswap governance token airdrops were a popular trend in DeFi. Popular protocols such as Optimism Arbitrum and Curve participated.

Hayden Adams' net worth: Where did it come from?

Hayden Adams' net worth has never been publicly disclosed, but various sources estimate that it is around $250 million. The majority of Hayden Adams' wealth is likely derived from his stake in UNI, which were distributed to early users and reserved for advisors and investors. According to the Uniswap Labs Blog, 21.5% out of 1 billion UNI minted during genesis were allocated to future employees and team members with a vesting period of four years.

It was not disclosed how much UNI Adams received from the airdrop. However, as a lead developer and founder of UNI, it is safe to assume he received a substantial compensation for his participation. Hayden Adams may have a substantial net worth, given the significant appreciation of UNI's price since its launch.

Adams likely also has a substantial equity stake in Uniswap Labs. The company's success will directly impact his net worth. Uniswap Labs achieved elite unicorn status in October 2022 after its Series B financing round, which brought its valuation up to a whopping $1.75 billion.

Adams' involvement in the crypto-industry and his connections make it likely that Uniswap's founder has various crypto assets, and may even have stakes in promising startup companies. Adams' Crunchbase page shows that he participated in two funding rounds for notable blockchain companies: Lens Protocol and WalletConnect.

Hayden Adams, the CEO of Uniswap Labs, is likely to receive a salary that is competitive with the market for his position within the company.

Bottom Line

Uniswap was founded in late 2018 and has since become one of most popular crypto apps, with millions users and over $1.5 trillion of trading volume in a lifetime. Hayden Adams's determination and daring would have made it impossible for Uniswap to succeed. He ventured into uncharted DeFi territory despite not having the skills or guidance necessary at the time.

Adams' willingness and ability to explore and learn about the potential of Ethereum have since paid off. As of November 2023 his estimated networth is approximately $250 million. This comes mainly from his UNI holdings, and equity stakes in Uniswap Labs. Adams' success goes beyond his inclusion on Forbes 30 Under 30: the 31-year old founder is one of the crypto industry's most influential voices, often sharing his thoughts on decentralized government and the future.

You can learn more about other crypto personalities' net worth by reading our articles on Vitalik Buterin, Michael Saylor, Kevin O'Leary, Shark Tank and Jesse Powell.

Custodial Staking is a method of earning rewards in crypto by entrusting your cryptocurrency to a third party service or platform.

It allows users to take part in Proof-of-Stake networks, without having to manage technical aspects or maintain constant connectivity.

As blockchain networks mature users discover new ways to contribute and participate to these decentralized eco-systems.

In this article we will explore the finer points of custodial stake and explain why it's important for the blockchain.

Understanding Staking

It's important to understand the basics of staking before you can move on to custodial stakes.

Staking is a way to actively participate in the operation of a blockchain by securing a certain amount as collateral. The collateral plays an important role in validating and securing transactions.

In traditional staking, users are required to manage the wallets of their staking-nodes and directly participate in the consensus mechanism on the blockchain. Custodial Staking adds a new twist to the process.

What is Custodial Stabbing?

Custodial Staking is the process of delegating responsibility for staking your cryptocurrency and securing it to a third party entity. This entity can be a custodian, or a service provider that provides staking services.

Users trust these entities with the technical aspects of stake, including node maintenance, transaction validation and other related tasks, while still maintaining ownership of their cryptocurrency.

The rise of custodial staking platforms

There are several custodial stake platforms that simplify the process, especially for those users who lack the technical knowledge or time to actively manage their staking. These platforms offer user-friendly interfaces and seamless staking experience, as well as additional features to enhance the overall stake process.

Custodial stakes: Benefits and Advantages

Cryptocurrency custodial stakes have many benefits. These are:

Simple and accessible

Custodial stake platforms are designed to appeal to a wider audience, by simplifying the process of staking. This accessibility is especially beneficial for those who are new to the crypto world, since it allows them participate in staking while not having to learn the technical aspects of running nodes.

Reduced Technical Burden

Staking can be a technical challenge, especially when self-managed. This includes maintaining server uptime and keeping software current, as well as troubleshooting any potential problems. The custodial stake services relieve this burden, as they handle the technical aspects for users. It allows users to stake without requiring specialized knowledge or constant supervision.

Liquidity

Custodial stake platforms are more flexible than traditional staking, which locks assets up for a fixed period. Users can keep their staked assets liquid, allowing them to react quickly to market changes or unexpected circumstances.

Earn Passive Income

Custodial Staking is a way for users to earn passive income by staking. Users can earn passive income by delegating assets to a custodian.

Risks and considerations

It is important to know the advantages and disadvantages of custodial stakes.

Trust Dependency

The inherent trust that users have in the custodial services is one of the main risks involved with custodial stake. Users must have faith that the custodian is going to manage their staked assets responsibly and securely. This dependence on a third-party introduces a single point of failure and emphasizes the importance of conducting thorough research before choosing a custodial stake platform.

Security Concerns

Due to their concentration, custodial stake platforms are attractive targets for malicious agents. In the event of a hacking or security breach, users risk losing their staked asset. It is important to choose a custodial service that has robust security features, such as encryption protocols, two factor authentication, and an open security history.

Centralization Concerns

Critics claim that custodial stakes introduce a degree of centralization into blockchain networks. This is contrary to the principles of decentralization these networks strive to maintain. Users who delegate their staking powers to a central entity run the risk of a few custodians controlling a large portion of staking power. This could compromise the security and decentralization of the network.

Possible Platform Closure

Users should be aware that the platform may close or stop offering its services. Users may have difficulty retrieving staked assets in such cases. This highlights the importance of selecting a well-established and reputable crypto exchange.

The Future of Custodial Staking

Custodial stake is a simple way for anyone to earn rewards and participate in blockchain networks without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

Although the benefits are obvious, it is important to choose a reputable custodian and thoroughly research them before staking.

As custodial stake continues to develop in conjunction with the crypto ecosystem, it is important to strike a balance between security and convenience.

Onyx is a cross token liquidity market that appears to be in limbo, trying to figure out the best way to recover from the hack of November 1, when the Web3 Project lost more than $2 million.

After the DAO leaders rejected the first two reimbursement plans, which offered the community the choice of using the DAO's treasury to compensate for hacks or depending on Strike Finance who was ready to takeover the protocol, they introduced the third proposal. The proposal focused on the use of the XCN DAO in order to resolve financial issues, while preserving Onyx and the XCN token. The plan included reducing inflation, changing staking rewards and winding down the lending markets.

Onyx Community tries to save the project with a new proposal

Onyx's community came up with a new proposal after the rejection of the old one. It was defeated as well on 25 November, despite a strong showing of support. Six addresses voted in favor with a total of 64,69 million votes and 11 addresses voted against with 260 million votes.

The Onyx team then proposed a new plan. They suggested the launch of Onyx V2 with an emphasis on primary markets. The proposal aims at maintaining current stake rates to encourage governing XCN stakeholders. The strategy also suggests redeploying NFT money markets in v2 market, with only ETH and WBTC lending markets and continuing support for all three NFTs.

The proposal has received support from 14 addresses, a total of 250.38 millions votes, and no votes have been cast against it. However, some members of Onyx's community are concerned about the lack of a clearly defined reimbursement plan.

The recovery strategy will include a snapshot of the user balances as v1 ends to create a plan for ongoing recovery. The recovery strategy explains that these high-revenue assets can be used to support the recovery plan.

Read on: Onyx Community rejects Strike Finance's proposal for Protocol acquisition

A number of community members also expressed their distrust, raising concerns over a large withdrawal, estimated at almost half a mil dollars as at the time of press, which was worth nearly 500 million XCN. The withdrawal took place two days after hacking, causing investors to worry about the possibility of an unauthorized withdrawal. The withdrawn XCN were divided between multiple wallets, and then moved to exchanges.

Alex, the DAO leader, explained that "Whales staked tokens or supplied XCN before the hack and, after they learned about the incident, withdrew the tokens from the protocol because they were confused as to whether it was safe for them to keep the staked tokens."

Wirex, an online financial platform that offers a crypto-enabled debit card, has announced the winners of their Rising Women in Crypto Power List 2023. Wirex, a Swiss crypto website and financial services platform, partnered with The Cryptonomist to launch the initiative. A team of experts was invited to examine each candidate.

Top 10 Women in Crypto

The 2023 Rising Women in Crypto Power List is as follows:

Amna Usman Chaudhry is the MENA Lead at Climate Chain Coalition

Amna is active in the space of blockchain since its early days. She is a passionate advocate of emerging technologies, and was a part of the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Program's first cohort. She co-founded BlockClean in 2018 to combat plastic pollution by tokenization.

Audrey Akwenye is the co-founder and founder of Black@

Audrey, an educator-turned-software engineer, embraced her tech career as a continuous pursuit of learning and expanding access. She wants to help diverse founders build impactful tech businesses. She is the leader of Black@, a token-gated, all-black, digital community that has over 250 members. This digital space provides a digital platform for black creators and founders.

Bridget Greenwood is the founder of 200Bn Club and co-founder of Bigger Pie.

Belinda, as the CEO and founder of Embolden Ventures is committed to empowering female entrepreneurs when it comes to building innovative businesses. As the leader of Women in Blockchain Asia's SG chapter, she champions an inclusive economic system. WIBA is a non profit that promotes women's leadership in blockchain technology. She is also the head for partnerships SG at The Sandbox, a company that specializes in metaverse.

Bridget Greenwood is the founder of The Bigger Pie and co-founder 200Bn Club.

Bridget is a leader in the web3 sector. She co-founded The 200Bn Club in London, an accelerator for female entrepreneurs, and founded The Bigger Pie to support exceptional women working in fintech. Bridget's work is data-driven, holistic and based on a holistic approach. She was the leader of The Bigger Pie, which supported over 10,000 women with their businesses.

Caterina Ferrara is a senior Blockchain consultant and Analyst at AlmavivA

Caterina is a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry, and has been recognized as a leader by LinkedIn. She is dedicated to social causes, and actively works towards leveraging crypto assets for charitable purposes. Caterina took part in a cryptocurrency campaign to support the Umberto Veronesi Foundation.

Charmaine Short is the operational test manager for Fnality International

Charmaine is a cryptocurrency enthusiast who has been involved in the industry since 2019. In 2020, she co-founded DAO Women of Crypto Art, which offers education on blockchain to artists and collectors, and promotes women's NFT artwork. She wrote various articles under the pseudonym Etta Tottie. This included a whitepaper promoting diversity in web3 applications. She founded Ettaverse, a web3 consultancy in 2022.

Lianna Adams is the founder of Impactful Artistry and a web3 advocate

Lianna advocates for a culture that puts humanity first in the fields of art, culture, and tech. She has over 18,000 speaking hours and shared many insights about web3 technologies, social impact, mental health in various communities, etc. Lianna is a member of ARTXV, a web3 collective that is neurodivergent.

Lori Souza is the co-founder of MetaFusion and its COO.

Lori has a multifaceted background that includes management, brokerage and business, as well as education, coaching, engineering processes, and management of technical support. She holds the title Certified International Blockchain advisor and is an organizer for Women in Crypto. Lori's consulting focuses on financial future education, crypto payment, compliance, licensing for money transmission, and crypto transaction forensics.

Priya Guliani is the CEO of Earth.ID

Priya is a technology entrepreneur and an impact investor. She advises start-ups and contributes to the web3 Community. She is the founder and leader of the Sustainable Environmental Stewardship Working Group within the Government Blockchain Association. This group was created to help organizations develop Sustainable, Attainable and Maintainable climate-change solutions.

Yaliwe Soko, Chairperson of the United Africa Blockchain Association

Yaliwe has been a leading speaker in the Web 3 area and is the driving force behind "1 Million For Blockchain in Africa (1MB)," a program that aims to increase awareness of blockchain among a million Africans. She has led UABA to establish chapters in nine African nations and bring venture capital into emerging tech start ups via the UABA Start Up Initiative.

Wirex also honored two other women in categories such as Social Media Influencer and Compliance Leader. First, the title was given to Randi Zuckerberg who is CEO and Founder at HUG. The second went to Natalia Latka who is Crypto Compliance Regulatory advisor at Merkle Science.

Stereotypically, it was believed that the crypto industry is dominated by males. Reality check shows that things are indeed changing. Recent research conducted in Singapore revealed that women are often more aggressive and active than men, not just as investors.

According to a second study, Nigerian women have a greater understanding of cryptography than their male counterparts.

Crypto is the second most popular asset class owned by women.