Uniswap Enters Launchpad Wars With Pools.trade on Robinhood Chain
Key Takeaways
- •Pools.trade charges no launchpad fee and uses permanently locked liquidity to reduce the risk of rug pulls.
- •Traders found earlier contract versions before the interface launched and generated more than $150 million in volume, delaying the official rollout.
- •Robinhood Chain has seen DEX volume and daily transactions rise 50% from local lows, with Pools.trade already taking a large share of launchpad activity.
- •Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows to start the week, while ETH ETFs also posted inflows.
- •Fomo App reached another all-time high in daily revenue as meme trading activity increased across chains.

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.
GM! Today's top news:
Crypto majors are slightly green with ETH leading; BTC at $64.5k
BTC ETFs see $626M in net inflows to start the week
Uniswap enters launchpad wars with zero-fee Pools.trade
Fomo App hits another new ATH in daily revenue as onchain heats up
Cashcat surges to $130M and Stonkbroker to $50M as RH Chain levels up
Uniswap Enters the Launchpad Wars With Pools.trade
Uniswap launched Pools.trade yesterday, its own token-launch platform built on Robinhood Chain and powered by its v4 protocol — the latest iteration of Uniswap's core infrastructure, which introduced customizable pool mechanics through "hooks" that give developers finer control over how trading pools operate.
Say hello to @TradePools, a new launchpad on Robinhood Chain
Launch and trade now on pic.twitter.com/2u38Mlve5h
— Uniswap (@Uniswap) August 5, 2026
Token launchpads are platforms that let anyone spin up and launch a new token or memecoin in minutes. This is the machinery behind the memecoin boom that Pump Fun built into a billion-dollar business on Solana and that drove Robinhood Chain's frenzy this summer. Now the biggest name in decentralized trading is stepping directly into the ring.
The rollout was fairly chaotic. Founder Hayden Adams said traders discovered earlier versions of the smart contracts before the interface even went live and pushed more than $150 million in volume through them. This forced the team to support both the test and final versions of the contracts simultaneously, pushing back the official launch. Adams noted that Uniswap has effectively served as a launchpad and launchpad infrastructure for over eight years, since new tokens have always launched into Uniswap pools — so this is not a new game for them.
Pools.trade's key differentiators include:
- It charges no launchpad fee
- Every launch comes with permanently locked liquidity, meaning creators cannot withdraw the pool's underlying assets — a structural safeguard against the "rug pulls" that have plagued token launches on other platforms where creators drain liquidity and abandon a project
- The 0.25% LP fee autocompounds back into that locked pool rather than going to the Uniswap team, split 20% to the token creator and 80% into the liquidity mechanism
- Heavy distribution with day-one support across the Uniswap web app, wallet, and trading API, plus third-party venues including Bitget, Fomo, GMGN, and OKX Wallet
There are two ways to launch: an instant launch that works like other launchpads, and a "crowd launch" designed to be fairer and more resistant to bundling — the sniping tactic where insiders grab large allocations at the open.
This was a power move from Uniswap. Uniswap is already the default exchange on Robinhood Chain, so Pools.trade vertically integrates the create-and-trade pipeline on the same chain where launchpads like Pons have been fighting for share. The decision to charge zero fees is very rare — a move very few teams are in a position to make, as Uniswap can earn fees from other mechanisms while other launchpad teams cannot. The strategy mirrors a broader pattern in crypto competition: incumbents with diversified revenue streams can subsidize one layer to capture volume and lock in users across an entire ecosystem.
Robinhood Chain has already seen the impact, with DEX volumes rebounding 50% from local lows and daily transactions up 50% as well. Pools is already capturing 50% market share by launchpad volume and 40% of new tokens launched.
The platform is still in beta, and whether it attracts quality projects or just more churn is unproven. The key question for the launchpad space more broadly is whether zero-fee models and locked-liquidity defaults can shift activity toward more sustainable token launches, or whether they simply redistribute the same speculative volume. But when the largest liquidity venue in DeFi makes a move like this, attention is warranted.
Macro Crypto and Markets
Crypto majors are mostly green with ETH leading; BTC +0.8% at $64.5k; ETH +2% at $1,903; SOL -1% at $73.30; HYPE -3% at $55.20
Top alt movers include ZRO (+6%), LIT (+5%), and CRV (+3%)
Oil -1% at $75.80; Gold +3% at $4,320
Stock futures are mixed after a strong start to the week; DOW +0.3%, Nasdaq -0.5%
Circle tapped BlackRock, Visa, and Mastercard as Arc validators, naming an 11-institution founding cohort drawn almost entirely from traditional finance, including DTCC, ICE, Standard Chartered, and SBI, to secure its blockchain when the public mainnet opens September 16. The composition signals Circle's intent to position Arc as an enterprise-grade settlement network backed by the same institutions that move trillions through legacy clearing systems.
Circle also renewed its Coinbase USDC partnership on existing terms and ruled out quarterly dividends, saying it would rather reinvest capital in growth.
Mysten Labs co-founder and CTO Sam Blackshear is leaving to join Anthropic to work on defensive security research — an exit from the company behind the Sui blockchain by the creator of its Move-based programming language. Move was originally developed at Meta for the abandoned Diem project before Mysten Labs adapted it for Sui, making Blackshear's departure a notable loss of the protocol's primary technical architect.
Visa expanded stablecoin payouts through a Zerohash partnership, letting businesses send funds directly to stablecoin wallets and deepening the card network's push into on-chain payment rails.
A volunteer audit called "Bitcoin Red Team" filed 4,962 AI-generated security findings across 390 Bitcoin projects in about 30 hours, including 85 critical and 635 high-severity issues, with privacy and coinjoin tools returning the highest share of serious bugs. The exercise demonstrates both the scaling potential of AI-assisted code review and the volume of unaddressed vulnerabilities across long-standing infrastructure in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
The Bitcoin ETFs saw $244M in net inflows on Wednesday; the ETH ETFs saw $61M in inflows.
Strategy's STRC preferred stock has rebounded 30% as the company plows capital into it and builds its cash reserve to $4 billion.
Meme Coin Tracker
Meme leaders were mostly red; DOGE -1%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -2%, PENGU +1%, TRUMP -1%, BONK even.
Robinhood chain was very green led by Cashcat (+34% to $130M), Stonkbroker (+35%), and Pipedog (+10%); FRONG retraces to $8M after peaking at $17M.
Solana leaders included Kio (+600%), Stonk (+165%), and Manlet (+90x); ANSEM even at $175M.
Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
The Fomo App hit another new ATH in daily revenue yesterday as meme trading volume explodes across chains.
An NFT project founder was charged in a $10 million fraud after prosecutors say he diverted investor funds to bankroll gambling and a DJ hobby.
NFT Market
NFT leaders were mixed; Punks even at 31.7 ETH, BAYC -4% at 8 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 3.85 ETH; Stonkbrokers +28% to 7.6 ETH.
Cash Cats (+100%) and pyo (+28%) led top movers.
A Hoodie CryptoPunk sold for $515,000, the largest sale of the month; and an XCOPY 1/1 sold for 280 ETH.