Uniswap Partners with MoonPay for Bank Card Crypto Purchases

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap now allows users to purchase crypto on its web app via debit cards, credit cards, and bank transfers. This is made possible for Uniswap thanks to a partnership with fintech company MoonPay. The bank transfer option is available to users within most US states, Brazil, the UK, and the Single Euro Payments Area.

In a December 20 announcement, Uniswap revealed that it had enabled quick fiat-to-crypto conversions on the Ethereum mainnet, Polygon, Optimism, and Artibrum. The service will initially support Dai, Ether, USDC, USDT, Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), and Wrapped Ether (wETH) subject to the user’s location. For example, US users cannot purchase wETH or wBTC.

According to the announcement, the minimum purchase size on many of the supported cryptocurrencies is $15 or the local currency equivalent. The minimum purchase size for ETH, USDC, USDT, and DAI depends on market conditions. Buy limits, on the other hand, are dependent on what cryptocurrency is being purchased and which fiat currency is used. For example, USDC has a cap of “10,000 on Arbitrum and Optimism while popular fiat currencies are capped at USD at 12,000, GBP at 9,000, EUR at 10,000, and CAD at 16,000.” Users can also buy NFTs on the Uniswap Web App using ETHh purchased through MoonPay.

Privacy and the Challenge Facing the DeFi Onboarding Process

The exchange revealed adoption has been greatly impacted by the DeFi onboarding experience, adding that despite the risks, users view centralized exchanges (CEXs) as more convenient. The company hopes this latest feature will help the onboarding process with its “no spread fees on USDC, lowest processing fees in the market, and instant access.”

Uniswap asserts that DEXs are much safer than CEXs due to their built-in user protection, self-custodial wallets, permissionless, immutable protocols, and transparent public ledger. The exchange’s new feature comes at a time when sentiments towards centralized platforms are changing owing to the recent collapse of such platforms, most notably and recently, FTX.

While users do not need to verify their identity to use the Uniswap Protocol, they need to observe  MoonPay’s KYC/AML policy to be able to buy crypto using a card or bank account. MoonPay points out that it does not share user data with Uniswap Labs. Uniswap Labs, in turn, revealed that it does not collect and store financial data such as card and bank information, or personal data such as names, home addresses, dates of birth, email addresses, and IP addresses.

Uniswap has also received criticism from the part of the crypto community for its collection and storage of user data, which some believe goes against crypto’s core values. In its privacy policy, updated on November 17,  Uniswap revealed that it would collect publicly available blockchain data, information about user devices such as browser information and operating systems, and information on users’ interactions with its service providers.