Uniswap founder’s business partner Richard Barton accused Hayden Adams of betrayal and financial debts of a large sum
Cryptocurrency investor Richard Barton said that the founder of Uniswap Hayden Adams betrayed him by owing a large sum. Barton made the announcement on his Twitter page. Initially, Barton claims, the business relationship between the partners was fine.
As head of the IT company Balance Software, Barton saw a breakthrough technology in Uniswap, and Adams could implement it, but with financial backing. To help with the vision, Barton gave Adams and his team studio space and covered the financial costs of developing a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange site.
“His passion for his project was just contagious. I loved watching him work, and I tried to be there to support him wherever I could,”
Barton says.
As the investor recalls, even Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin did not want to support Uniswap at the very initial stage of project development and he was the only one who believed in the project. However, Adams soon ran out of money again, and Balance Software’s capital also began to decline rapidly.
Then Adams’ business partner decided to pay for him to fly to San Francisco to meet with the heads of the cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm to invest in Uniswap. As Barton recalls, even then he made a major mistake by taking Adams at his word:
“He said he would put me on the Uniswap investor list at a level that would cover all my time and money given to him. I was encouraged to be part of it all.”
Soon, for reasons unknown, another not insignificant event occurred that “boomeranged” Barton in the future: the top management of Balance Software demanded that he leave the company, to which he agreed. Later, Paradigm decided to support Uniswap, but demanded that Adams not include Barton in the list of investors.
What exactly was the reason for that decision is unclear, but Barton believes that the venture capital firm did not want to see an entrepreneur who got rid of his own company on the list of investors.
The founder of Uniswap agreed with Paradigm’s demand and did not list a business partner as an investor. About the financial debt to the former head of Balance Software Hayden Adams remembered only when Uniswap planned to give away UNI tokens. However, in order to get the tokens, Adams demanded that Barton sign a confidential agreement forbidding him from speaking publicly in any way about his initial support of the project. Barton did not provide a copy of the agreement.
The ex-head of Balance Software was not happy with this arrangement and sued the Uniswap founder for $100 million in compensation. At the time of writing, Uniswap had not publicly commented on the charges.
