Uniswap (UNI), one of the largest and longest-running decentralized exchanges, is expanding further into tokenized assets with a new framework designed to allow regulated securities to trade on the platform while maintaining compliance controls required by institutions.

Uniswap Labs, the developer of the decentralized exchange, is rolling out “Permissioned Pools” on Thursday. The infrastructure is intended for tokenized funds, equities and other regulated assets, allowing issuers to limit trading to approved investors while still using Uniswap’s automated market maker.

The framework was developed with tokenization firms Securitize (SECZ) and Superstate, as well as European digital securities platform Dowgo. All three launch partners plan to use the framework for regulated onchain assets.

Ken Ng, head of ecosystem at Uniswap Labs, told CoinDesk that the feature “gives issuers a flexible way to enforce their own compliance rules without building separate trading infrastructure.”

“The next generation of value coming onchain, and it’s trading on Uniswap,” Ng said.

Permissioned Pools allow tokenized asset issuers to enforce investor eligibility requirements directly onchain while using Uniswap’s automated trading infrastructure. Before a trade or liquidity deposit can take place, the pool checks whether a wallet has been approved by the asset issuer. Investors who satisfy those requirements can trade through Uniswap’s automated market maker, while issuers retain control over eligibility.

The feature arrives as tokenized assets gain traction on Wall Street and decentralized finance protocols increasingly adapt to institutional investors. Protocols originally built for open, permissionless trading and lending are adding tools for financial institutions that want to bring traditional, regulated real-world assets (RWA) onto blockchain networks. The shift reflects a broader pattern in DeFi, where platforms that once prioritized censorship resistance are layering in selective access controls to capture institutional demand that requires adherence to know-your-customer, anti-money-laundering, and securities regulations.

Aave, the largest decentralized lender, has taken a similar direction with Horizon, an institutional lending venue for tokenized assets.

The potential market has attracted major financial firms. Global asset managers including BlackRock, Apollo, Franklin Templeton and VanEck have launched tokenized funds, while brokerages and exchanges are expanding tokenized stock offerings. A recent report by global bank Citi projected that tokenized securities could grow into a $5.5 trillion market by 2030.

Uniswap has already been building toward institutional tokenized assets. In February, BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL, issued by Securitize, became tradable on the protocol. BlackRock also disclosed an investment in UNI, Uniswap’s governance token. The protocol has also recorded increased activity following the launch on Robinhood’s new chain and tokenized stock trading.

Built on Uniswap v4, the new Permissioned Pools standard extends that work by moving investor eligibility enforcement into the protocol rather than relying on offchain compliance checks. Uniswap v4’s hook architecture, which lets developers inject custom logic at specific points in the trading lifecycle, is what makes this onchain eligibility gating technically feasible. The approach is designed to preserve many decentralized finance benefits while incorporating the regulatory controls expected by institutional issuers.

“Until now, compliance for tokenized securities lived at the app layer; a gate standing in front of the market,” Superstate CEO Robert Leshner told CoinDesk. “Permissioned Pools move those rules into the pool itself, so a regulated asset can tap real AMM liquidity without the issuer giving up the controls securities law requires.”

“That's the piece of plumbing tokenization has been missing,” Leshner added.