A lot of people don’t even realize it yet, but many projects already quietly stacking their work on top of
@Uniswap v4 Hooks.
Uniswap v4 Hooks weren’t just “another feature”, they rewired the entire design space. Instead of being confined to one-size-fits-all AMM behavior, developers can now attach custom smart contracts straight onto liquidity pools.
These hooks trigger at exact checkpoints (before/after swaps, liquidity adds/removes, and more), effectively turning each pool into a programmable playground.
That shift has kicked off two very different tracks of innovation:
→ The Infrastructure layer
→ The Hook Tokens (The experimental frontier)
Now let’s break down the protocols in each category.
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➥ Infrastructure Layer
These projects use v4 hooks to enhance or completely reimagine core DeFi primitives like trading, lending, and liquidity provision.
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@angstromxyz by
@SorellaLabs → MEV-protected DEX
- EulerSwap by
@eulerfinance → Lending AMM Hybrid
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@SiloFinance V2 → Isolated lending market
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@KyberNetwork Fairflow → LP yield booster
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@flaunchgg → Token launchpad
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@dopplerprotocol → Custom token launchpad
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@AegisMarkets → Dynamic fees
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@Corkprotocol → Depeg hedging
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➥ Hook Tokens
These are a newer, more speculative category. Here the hook itself is central to the token’s identity and mechanics, often creating entirely new primitives.
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@prism_lp /
$PRISM → Liquidity-native token
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@unipegv4 /
$UPEG → Generative art hook token
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$SATO → Bonding curve hook token
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Bottom line is that Uniswap v4 Hooks make liquidity programmable, less a pool, more a playground. They enable entirely new financial (and even creative) primitives on top of AMMs.
It’s a major DeFi leap, but adoption is still lukewarm. Why:
- Safety Complexity is harder than v3: hooks can alter core pool behavior, expanding the attack surface. One bad assumption can be catastrophic (e.g., the Cork Protocol $11M exploit in May 2025 tied to a hook bug).
- DevEx is still niche: hooks require new mental models and tooling (Foundry, delta mechanics, custom accounting). Libraries like OpenZeppelin help, but it’s not as polished as v3.
- Many strategies don’t need it: v3 remains strong, and simpler designs can achieve similar results with less risk.
Still, momentum is growing, especially where hooks create genuinely new primitives, not just variations on old ones.