Overview: Felix, PANews On November 13, Uniswap Labs announced the launch of the Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA) protocol. This protocol aims to help teams and developers quickly build liquidity in Uniswap v4 and establish a fair market price for new tokens with low liquidity. CCA was jointly designed by Uniswap Labs and Aztec Network, with Aztec contributing a ZK Passport module that supports private and verifiable participation. Aztec will also be the first project to launch using CCA. Design Principles Liquidity formation often occurs behind the scenes, but this creates an information gap, inevitably granting privileges to a few participants and potentially leading to insufficient market liquidity and instability. CCA, as a native on-chain solution, is designed around three principles: First, it adopts an on-chain native market creation method, and the entire auction process, from pricing and bidding to settlement, is carried out transparently on the chain, without any "gatekeepers" or off-chain transactions. Secondly, it supports fair and gradual price discovery, with token supply allocated during the auction through a continuous liquidation mechanism. This incentivizes users to bid early, reduces malicious bidding, lowers market volatility, and helps the market converge towards fair value. Finally, the proceeds from the auction will automatically create a liquidity pool on Uniswap v4, thereby increasing liquidity. Protocol mechanism The new auction mechanism CCA is highly configurable, capable of resisting malicious buying/bundling, and helps curb phenomena such as "dumping" and "early birding." The protocol allows projects to define the number of tokens available for sale, the starting price, and the auction duration. Users then place bids, specifying the maximum price and total expenditure. These bids are irrevocable, and the maximum price is within a certain range. At the end of each block, the highest price at which all tokens within that block can be sold is determined. All participants who bid in that block pay the same liquidation price. The specific liquidity bootstrapping process is as follows: 1. Configure liquidity guidance The project team sets the price discovery parameters: The supply release plan Q(t) specifies how the tokens will be released over time. Price floor to prevent selling below the minimum valuation. The duration is specified by the start block and the end block. Graduation thresholds required for successful liquidity deployment 2. Price discovery through auctions Participants determine market prices in the following ways: Specify the maximum price you are willing to pay. Commit to spending a fixed number of tokens Bids will be automatically allocated to all remaining auction periods according to the release plan. 3. Continuous price clearing As the auction proceeded: Each new round of bidding creates a checkpoint. The liquidation price is calculated based on total demand and available supply. Prices will only rise or remain unchanged (they will not fall). All participants paid the same price during that period. 4. Auction completed and price determined When the price discovery process ends: The system will check whether the graduation requirements have been met. Upon graduation: The final liquidation price will become the initial price of the liquidity pool. If graduation is not achieved: all bidders will receive a full refund and no money pool will be created. 5. Liquidity Deployment After a successful auction: Bidders withdraw to calculate their final transaction amount and receive tokens. The funds raised, along with the remaining tokens, will be deployed as liquidity to Uniswap V4 pools. The pool is initialized with the discovered liquidation price. Aztec becomes the first token issued using CCA. Aztec Network, as the first token sale to use the CCA mechanism, had an initial valuation (fully diluted valuation, FDV) of $350 million, a 75% discount to the valuation of Aztec Labs' previous equity financing. To prevent large investors from monopolizing the auction, there is a limit to the number of participants each user can make. Early contributors and community members, including testnet operators, OG Aztec Connect users, and individual Ethereum stakers, can start bidding today. The public sale will take place from December 2nd to 6th, after which tokens can be withdrawn and staked directly on-chain. Joe Andrews, co-founder of Aztec Labs, stated, “For years, token issuance has favored insiders at the expense of the communities that drive innovation. CCA, developed in partnership with Uniswap, redefines fair access in the crypto space—no special deals, no hidden allocations.” Uniswap founder Hayden Adams stated that the CCA protocol marks Uniswap's expansion from transaction infrastructure to issuance infrastructure. Currently, CCA is deployed on Ethereum and the sidechain Unichain, supporting custom modularity and suitable for various token issuance scenarios, from meme coins to serious projects. In the coming months, the company plans to release more modules to further enhance the launch experience for projects and communities using CCA. It's worth noting that while the community praises CCA, some have expressed skepticism, claiming it's not much different from Liquidity Bootstrapping (LBP). As the core of Uniswap Liquidity Launchpad, whether CCA can standardize DeFi issuance, dispel doubts, and become a mainstream tool in 2026 remains to be seen. Related Reading: A Brief Analysis of the New Protocol CCA Jointly Released by Uniswap and AztecOverview: Felix, PANews On November 13, Uniswap Labs announced the launch of the Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA) protocol. This protocol aims to help teams and developers quickly build liquidity in Uniswap v4 and establish a fair market price for new tokens with low liquidity. CCA was jointly designed by Uniswap Labs and Aztec Network, with Aztec contributing a ZK Passport module that supports private and verifiable participation. Aztec will also be the first project to launch using CCA. Design Principles Liquidity formation often occurs behind the scenes, but this creates an information gap, inevitably granting privileges to a few participants and potentially leading to insufficient market liquidity and instability. CCA, as a native on-chain solution, is designed around three principles: First, it adopts an on-chain native market creation method, and the entire auction process, from pricing and bidding to settlement, is carried out transparently on the chain, without any "gatekeepers" or off-chain transactions. Secondly, it supports fair and gradual price discovery, with token supply allocated during the auction through a continuous liquidation mechanism. This incentivizes users to bid early, reduces malicious bidding, lowers market volatility, and helps the market converge towards fair value. Finally, the proceeds from the auction will automatically create a liquidity pool on Uniswap v4, thereby increasing liquidity. Protocol mechanism The new auction mechanism CCA is highly configurable, capable of resisting malicious buying/bundling, and helps curb phenomena such as "dumping" and "early birding." The protocol allows projects to define the number of tokens available for sale, the starting price, and the auction duration. Users then place bids, specifying the maximum price and total expenditure. These bids are irrevocable, and the maximum price is within a certain range. At the end of each block, the highest price at which all tokens within that block can be sold is determined. All participants who bid in that block pay the same liquidation price. The specific liquidity bootstrapping process is as follows: 1. Configure liquidity guidance The project team sets the price discovery parameters: The supply release plan Q(t) specifies how the tokens will be released over time. Price floor to prevent selling below the minimum valuation. The duration is specified by the start block and the end block. Graduation thresholds required for successful liquidity deployment 2. Price discovery through auctions Participants determine market prices in the following ways: Specify the maximum price you are willing to pay. Commit to spending a fixed number of tokens Bids will be automatically allocated to all remaining auction periods according to the release plan. 3. Continuous price clearing As the auction proceeded: Each new round of bidding creates a checkpoint. The liquidation price is calculated based on total demand and available supply. Prices will only rise or remain unchanged (they will not fall). All participants paid the same price during that period. 4. Auction completed and price determined When the price discovery process ends: The system will check whether the graduation requirements have been met. Upon graduation: The final liquidation price will become the initial price of the liquidity pool. If graduation is not achieved: all bidders will receive a full refund and no money pool will be created. 5. Liquidity Deployment After a successful auction: Bidders withdraw to calculate their final transaction amount and receive tokens. The funds raised, along with the remaining tokens, will be deployed as liquidity to Uniswap V4 pools. The pool is initialized with the discovered liquidation price. Aztec becomes the first token issued using CCA. Aztec Network, as the first token sale to use the CCA mechanism, had an initial valuation (fully diluted valuation, FDV) of $350 million, a 75% discount to the valuation of Aztec Labs' previous equity financing. To prevent large investors from monopolizing the auction, there is a limit to the number of participants each user can make. Early contributors and community members, including testnet operators, OG Aztec Connect users, and individual Ethereum stakers, can start bidding today. The public sale will take place from December 2nd to 6th, after which tokens can be withdrawn and staked directly on-chain. Joe Andrews, co-founder of Aztec Labs, stated, “For years, token issuance has favored insiders at the expense of the communities that drive innovation. CCA, developed in partnership with Uniswap, redefines fair access in the crypto space—no special deals, no hidden allocations.” Uniswap founder Hayden Adams stated that the CCA protocol marks Uniswap's expansion from transaction infrastructure to issuance infrastructure. Currently, CCA is deployed on Ethereum and the sidechain Unichain, supporting custom modularity and suitable for various token issuance scenarios, from meme coins to serious projects. In the coming months, the company plans to release more modules to further enhance the launch experience for projects and communities using CCA. It's worth noting that while the community praises CCA, some have expressed skepticism, claiming it's not much different from Liquidity Bootstrapping (LBP). As the core of Uniswap Liquidity Launchpad, whether CCA can standardize DeFi issuance, dispel doubts, and become a mainstream tool in 2026 remains to be seen. Related Reading: A Brief Analysis of the New Protocol CCA Jointly Released by Uniswap and Aztec