Uniswap News Today: Celo's Uniswap v4 Aims to Democratize Finance in Emerging Markets

Uniswap v4 has officially launched on the Celo blockchain, marking a significant step forward in delivering low-cost, customizable decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions to a global audience. The Celo Foundation announced the deployment in a Celo Foundation announcement, emphasizing that the upgrade brings the most flexible and cost-effective version of the Uniswap Protocol to Celo's ecosystem, which now serves over 600,000 daily active users and has processed more than 1 billion transactions since its inception. The move follows the successful deployment of Uniswap v3 on Celo in July 2022, which saw transaction volumes grow 15x year-over-year to exceed $5 billion in 2024, solidifying Celo's role in anchoring stablecoin liquidity in emerging markets, according to that announcement.

Uniswap v4 introduces a suite of innovations designed to enhance user experience and developer flexibility. Notably, the protocol's "Hooks" feature allows developers to create custom market structures, new asset types, and additional functionalities on top of the Uniswap framework. This customization aligns with Celo's mission to provide accessible financial tools, as the network's sub-cent transaction fees and fast finality make it ideal for real-world applications. Users also benefit from reduced costs, with cheaper pool creation, faster multi-hop swaps, and built-in Ethereum (ETH) support driving gas savings for both traders and liquidity providers, the announcement noted.

Celo Co-Founder and cLabs CEO Marek Olszewski highlighted the strategic importance of the deployment: "Bringing Uniswap v4 to the Celo community is a major advancement for our DeFi ecosystem and the global crypto community at large. We built Celo to make financial tools accessible to users throughout the world, a mission that Uniswap is driving forward through its cost-effective, intuitive solutions." Uniswap Foundation Head of Growth Chirag Narang added that the upgrade expands the design space for DeFi, enabling greater flexibility and composability in onchain markets, the announcement added.

The deployment of Uniswap v4 on Celo is part of a broader ecosystem expansion. Earlier this year, DeFi protocols like Aave and Velodrome launched on the network, while initiatives such as Self Protocol's zk-powered identity verification and Mento Labs' local digital currencies have further diversified Celo's offerings. The network's recent migration to an Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) architecture in March 2025 has also bolstered its scalability, with metrics showing a 365% increase in protocol revenue and a surge in dapp volume to $1 billion monthly, per a CoinMarketCap update. Additionally, leadership changes, including the appointment of Elizabeth Peng as COO to drive "Vision 2030," underscore Celo's focus on institutional partnerships and governance improvements, as that update described.

The integration of Uniswap v4 into Celo's ecosystem is poised to amplify the network's impact in emerging markets, where low-cost transactions and mobile-first infrastructure are critical for financial inclusion. With Celo's user base growing and cross-chain solutions like Mento's Wormhole integration enabling stablecoin swaps across 40+ blockchains, the platform is positioning itself as a hub for decentralized forex and remittances. The CoinMarketCap update also notes that while Celo's token (CELO) has faced price volatility, the network's real-world adoption metrics—such as 8 million activated MiniPay wallets and $1 billion in monthly stablecoin volume—suggest strong underlying demand.

As Celo continues its roadmap of integrating zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs for L2 security and testing Espresso's BFT consensus layer for faster finality, the deployment of Uniswap v4 reinforces the network's commitment to innovation and accessibility. For developers and users alike, the combination of customizable DeFi tools and Celo's low-cost infrastructure may redefine how decentralized finance operates in regions where traditional financial systems remain underdeveloped.