Uniswap (UNI) to Allow Users to Buy Crypto with Debit, Credit Cards and Bank Accounts

Uniswap (UNI), the largest decentralized crypto exchange, has announced that it’s going to allow users to purchase digital assets with debit and credit cards, as well as with bank accounts.

Uniswap said on Tuesday that it’s partnering with MoonPay, a digital assets infrastructure and payments processor, to solve “a major barrier” to decentralized finance applications – the need to go through a centralized exchange to access decentralized exchanges.

“Decentralized exchanges are the safest way to trade digital assets compared to their centralized counterparts. With self-custodial wallets, permissionless and immutable protocols, and a transparent public ledger, DEXs have built-in user protections. However, a major barrier to DeFi adoption has been the onboarding experience, compelling users to store their CEXs for convenience, despite the risks,” Uniswap said in a blog post.

Uniswap will first support DAI, ETH, MATIC, USDC, USDT, WBTC, and WETH tokens, though U.S. users will be unable to purchase WETH and WBTC tokens. Users will also be able to buy crypto on Ethereum layer 2 networks Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum.

Payment processors like MoonPay usually quote a bit higher token price than the market rate. However, Uniswap said it’s not going to take a cut off the spread on USDC transactions. It said it has negotiated “low spread and processing fees on all supported currencies”.

Those interested will need to go through MoonPay’s know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering (AML) security checks to verify their identity. However, Uniswap said it’s not going to collect users’ personal data.

The terms of the deal between Uniswap and MoonPay were not disclosed. Uniswap also said it’s not offering an off-ramp service at the moment.

Uniswap has joined other decentralized exchanges that have recently integrated on-ramp services. For example, Loopring, an application specific zero-knowledge rollup, integrated Ramp and Wyre as its payment processors earlier this year. 

Argent, a crypto wallet that supports the layer 2 project zkSync, also offers the opportunity to invest in digital assets with debit and credit cards. MetaMask allows its users to buy crypto directly from the wallet using PayPal.

On-ramp services have become a hot topic following the dramatic collapse of FTX. Some industry players are raising the question of whether crypto needs centralized exchanges at all when on-ramp services, combined with self-custodial decentralized finance applications, seem to offer more security and the same trading services.

Uniswap is the largest decentralized crypto exchange. Its move to introduce fiat on-ramp services shows its intention to keep dominating the market even during the crypto winter. However, investors should always do their own diligence about the on-ramp provider they want to use.