UNI Surges 110% in Primary Uniswap Users, Doubles Optimism
Uniswap Labs, the developer of Uniswap, one of the leading decentralized exchanges (DEXs), said the number of users utilizing its platform on Optimism and Base has more than doubled in the past year.
More swapping occurs in fundamentals and optimism
Optimism and Base, popular layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum, offer distinct advantages to traders. When exchanging tokens on Uniswap deployed on one of these platforms, traders can benefit from significantly lower transaction fees.
Uniswap Lab report There has been a noticeable surge in swappers on Optimism and Base. Over the past year, that number has doubled from 124,970 in February 2023 to 310,050 in February 2024, indicating growing interest in these layer 2 solutions.
This growth reflects the upward trend in DeFi activity, evidenced by the increase in total value locked (TVL) across various protocols, especially starting in Q3 2023.
March 7th DefiLlama data show Total DeFi TVL across all protocols is over $96 billion. At one point in 2023, it was less than $40 billion.
Uniswap is active on multiple platforms, including the BNB chain. However, most activity comes from Ethereum and Ethereum-compatible networks, including Optimism and Base.
data show Uniswap is the 7th largest protocol with a TVL of $5.8 billion. A significant portion of assets under management are concentrated in Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Polygon. Base and Optimism are also popular, but Uniswap manages $67 million and $80 million respectively.
Uniswap first launched on Ethereum in November but has since been deployed on 13 other networks. Uniswap Labs has worked to improve user experience by moving away from Ethereum’s high gas fees.
Layer 2 solutions and sidechains like Optimism, Base, and Polygon have provided a channel for users to continue transacting while enjoying low fees and fast throughput.
Uniswap continues to build.
Uniswap Labs has announced deployment of Uniswap v2 on various layer 2 platforms in late February 2024. Uniswap v2 is one of the earlier versions but is still popular.
Uniswap v3 is active and its version has been cloned from other protocols, mainly PancakeSwap, a popular competing DEX on the BNB chain.
Uniswap Labs is developing Uniswap v4. We are introducing more features, including Hooks, to improve flexibility.
The surge in user numbers across various platforms has been positive for Uniswap’s native token, UNI. So far the token is up about 110% since the end of February. As of March 7th, it is trading at around $15.
Featured image from Canva, chart from TradingView
