UMA or Universal Market Access is a protocol for the creation of synthetic assets based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. UMA was launched in December 2018.Synthetic assets are a class of assets that represent different underlying assets and have the same value. UMA specifically enables its users to design and create self-executing self-enforcing financial contracts secured by economic incentives and run them on Ethereum’s blockchain.In essence UMA allows counterparties to digitize and automate any real-world financial derivatives such as futures contracts for differences (CFDs) or total return swaps. It also enables the creation of self-fulfilling derivative contracts based on digital assets like other cryptocurrencies.