SMBC Nikko Uniswap DeFi Gateway Targets 2027

Japan’s Uniswap DeFi gateway project in collaboration with five companies, including SMBC Nikko, will go live by mid-2027.
This platform will use Uniswap v4 hooks to integrate anti-money laundering, counter-financing terrorism, and investor protection within liquidity pools.
This project is currently under development and FSA has yet to approve this product for consumers.

SMBC Nikko Securities will collaborate with Nethermind, Uniswap Labs, Base, and Nyx Foundation to develop the DeFi Gateway for Japan, a service that will enable qualified Japanese investors to access DeFi in a manner that fits the local regulatory landscape.

The collaboration has been marked by signing a memorandum of understanding regarding the project, slated for completion by mid-2027. However, the development is still pending further negotiations and technical development and does not represent approval of any consumer offering by the FSA.

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The planned gateway is centered on liquidity pools using Uniswap v4. Rather than handling compliance only through an external website or separate verification process, the project intends to place regulatory controls directly into the pools through v4 hooks.

How the SMBC Nikko Uniswap project will handle compliance

Uniswap V4 hooks are the smart contracts that give developers an ability to implement custom logic in their liquidity pools. The hooks are planned to be used in the project for Japanese investors to develop the infrastructure of anti-money laundering (AML), counter-financing of terrorism (CFT), and investor protection tools.

Source: Uniswap

This solution will help to adapt the liquidity pools to Japanese investors’ needs. The project also includes testing and optimization of automated market maker (AMM) and hook strategies for the Japanese market, alongside due diligence covering tokens and protocols.

Several important commercial details have not yet been disclosed. These include the tokens that would be supported, customer eligibility conditions, fees, minimum investment requirements, and the final legal structure of the pools.

Uniswap Labs introduced permissioned pools in July that use issuer-managed allow lists to restrict swapping or liquidity provision to approved wallets. The Japan-centric effort aims at building upon the capabilities of v4 in developing pools suited to the needs of Japan.

Technical and regulatory issues are shared by the partners.

The partnership between the two companies, SMBC Nikko and Nethermind, is spearheading this effort. The company SMBC Nikko is responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance.

Moreover, Nethermind is working on the technical aspects of the project that include system design, artificial intelligence, and smart contract security.

Uniswap Labs will provide technical support for protocol integration and advise on liquidity provision. Base will support deployment within its ecosystem and provide technical guidance related to x402, an open payment protocol developed by Coinbase that enables software and AI agents to make stablecoin payments for APIs and online services.

Nyx Foundation is expected to contribute expertise on market-making strategies and the development and optimization of hook structures.

AI vault forms another part of the gateway.

The project also includes an AI-powered agent-based vault. This system is supposed to help make investment decisions or make decisions on behalf of investors within pre-set boundaries.

The research idea that was generated in March has defined the automation of the process within certain boundaries but not the discretion of an AI system. The planned system is also intended to make its decision-making process verifiable and reproducible. An interface designed for straightforward user operation is planned alongside the technology.

The broader liquidity strategy will cover digital assets such as stablecoins and real-world assets. The project builds on an earlier concept publicly announced by SMBC Nikko and Nethermind on March 6, 2026, concerning Japanese investor participation in on-chain finance through AMM liquidity provision.

Regulatory discussions remain part of development.

The partners plan to share progress with government and regulatory bodies, including Japan’s FSA, as work continues. Such discussions are taking place at a time when the Japanese authorities are considering problems related to DeFi, stablecoins, anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism, and other digital asset activities.

The project announcement doesn’t mean that FSA has approved the gateway or any consumer services. Before such a launch, there is still work to be done in terms of technical implementation, management of the pool, and other regulatory discussions.

Market activity provides additional context for the development. In September, daily trading volume on a tokenized-equities DEX on Base reached $100 million, while Token Terminal measured $139.3 million in comparable trading on Uniswap v4 over the preceding 30 days. SMBC Nikko has not confirmed that assets behind those trades will be available through the Japanese gateway.