Uniswap is bringing tokenized real-world asset trading further on-chain. Its developer, Uniswap Labs, has launched a new framework called "Permission Pools," which allows issuers of tokenized funds, stocks, and other regulated assets to enforce investor access requirements directly on-chain while using automated market makers.
Based on Uniswap v4
This feature is built on Uniswap v4 and aims to allow regulated assets to access Uniswap's liquidity infrastructure without needing to build a separate trading system. By design, the liquidity pool verifies whether the wallet has been approved by the issuer before a transaction or liquidity injection occurs.
Approved wallets can continue trading within the pool, while unapproved addresses cannot participate. This way, the issuer retains control over investor eligibility, and transactions continue to be completed through on-chain automated market makers.
Partners target regulated assets
The initial partners include Securitize, Superstate, and the European digital securities platform Dowgo. All three companies plan to use this framework for regulated on-chain assets.
Uniswap Labs stated that this design provides issuers with a more flexible approach to compliance enforcement, eliminating the need to place investor screening entirely off-chain at the application layer. Superstate also noted that while compliance controls for tokenized securities previously resided primarily at the application level, the rules are now directly embedded in the trading pools themselves, allowing regulated assets to access genuine AMM liquidity.
DeFi begins to adapt to institutional trading
This move also reflects a shift in the direction of DeFi protocols. Early decentralized trading and lending protocols primarily targeted open, permissionless markets; now, more and more projects are adjusting their product structures to cater to institutional and regulated assets. Aave's Horizon, a platform for lending tokenized assets to institutions, is a similar example.
Wall Street interest in tokenized assets is also heating up. Asset management firms such as BlackRock, Apollo, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck have launched tokenized funds, and brokerages and trading platforms are expanding their tokenized stock businesses. Citigroup previously predicted that the tokenized securities market could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.
Uniswap has also been paving the way in this direction in recent months. In February of this year, the BlackRock tokenized money market fund BUIDL, issued by Securitize, became available for trading on the protocol. At the same time, the protocol's activity has also increased with the launch of Robinhood's new chain and the increase in tokenized stock trading.
