UMA stands for Universal Market Access, a decentralised financial contracts platform that enables users to design and create self-executing, self-enforcing financial contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. UMA's innovative protocol uses synthetic assets to mimic the economic attributes of traditional financial instruments in a trustless, permissionless way. This allows for the creation of bespoke financial contracts and instruments that can track the price of virtually anything without requiring custody of the underlying asset. The UMA token is primarily used for governance, allowing holders to vote on system upgrades and dispute resolutions within the network.