Mary-Catherine Lader, President and Chief Operating Officer of Uniswap Labs, has stepped down from her position after four years with the company. Lader, who joined Uniswap in 2021 after leaving BlackRock, is known as one of the early figures from traditional finance to transition into the crypto space.

During her tenure, Lader played a crucial role in scaling the startup's team and building internal infrastructure across various departments, including finance, legal, human resources, marketing, policy, and customer support. Her efforts helped transition Uniswap from a developer-centric project into a more structured organization. In October 2022, Uniswap raised $165 million, reaching a valuation of approximately $1.66 billion.

Lader will remain in an advisory role at Uniswap as she prepares for her next venture. A Uniswap spokesperson acknowledged her departure, expressing gratitude for her four years of leadership and affirming the company's commitment to building on her contributions by focusing on users, partners, and the DeFi community.

Before joining Uniswap, Lader was a managing director and global head of Aladdin Sustainability at BlackRock. Her move to Uniswap marked a significant shift, as she became involved with Ethereum's largest decentralized trading platform. Uniswap, founded by Hayden Adams in 2018, operates differently from centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, allowing users to swap tokens directly with one another. Recent data from DefiLlama indicates Uniswap's trading volume has exceeded $73 billion over the past 30 days.

In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded an investigation into Uniswap that originated from a Wells Notice issued in April 2024. The case was closed without any enforcement action from the regulatory body.

Lader reflected on her time at Uniswap, stating that she is starting something new after four incredible years. She acknowledged the progress made in the crypto space since she began working with digital assets at BlackRock in 2015 and described building with Hayden Adams as an "awesome adventure". Uniswap has not yet announced Lader's replacement as president.