In a transaction that closed October 5, 2025, Belcher, Smolen & Van Loo LLP served as legal counsel to Guidestar in its acquisition by Uniswap Labs, a deal that unites a stealth team of market‑design researchers with one of the most influential decentralized‑finance companies. Guidestar has spent the last two years building new automated market maker (AMM) and smart‑routing technology and will join Uniswap Labs to continue advanced market‑design and execution research. Uniswap’s flexible v4 protocol already sets the standard for AMMs, and Guidestar’s research exploring how to adapt AMMs to diverse markets — from stablecoins and liquid staking tokens to real‑world assets — will expand the design space so the protocol can serve more markets with greater flexibility and efficiency. The transaction also accelerates Uniswap’s drive to make its products the fastest and most reliable way to access competitive liquidity; Guidestar’s engineering will advance smart order routing so users continue to get the best swaps, whether transacting directly on‑chain or through protocols like UniswapX. By adding world‑class talent and research capacity, the acquisition furthers Uniswap’s long‑term mission to build a global, decentralized exchange for all tokenized value. We are proud to have guided Guidestar through this innovative transaction and look forward to supporting their continued technical innovation as part of the Uniswap Labs team. More details on the transaction can be found in this link.
