Uniswap’s Economy Is About to Change: Research Says

The economy of Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange, is about to change. Michael Nadeau, the founder of the blockchain research services The DeFi Report, wrote on X that the platform and UNI token holders will begin to benefit from network activities.

This change comes due to the recent launch of Uniswap’s Layer 2 solution Unichain. 

Based on data from The DeFi Report, over the last year, Uniswap generated around $1.3 billion in trading and settlement fees across five primary chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, and Optimism.

However, $0 of this amount went to the protocol and token holders. Instead, the value went to Liquidity Providers, Ethereum Validators, MEV bots, and the L2 sequencers, Nadeau wrote.

Unichain, launched on the testnet on October 10, will allow Uniswap to control more of its value. The solution was developed in collaboration with Optimism and uses its Superchain interoperability network.

Related: Overview of the Uniswap (UNI) project

So, Uniswap will be able to capture around $368 million in estimated settlement fees it currently pays to Ethereum validators.

About 10% of the total fees paid on Uniswap comes from MEV (Maximal Extractable Value), which are bids users pay to prioritize their transactions. That figure was estimated to be $100 million last year. Unichain will ensure that MEV is captured by the platform and can potentially be shared with token holders.

As for Liquidity Providers, they will continue to receive trading fees.

Nadeau mentions the new economy will benefit Uniswap Labs, UNI token holders, Liquidity Providers, and the Optimism chain. Meanwhile, Ethereum validators, ETH token holders, and L2 sequencers will be impacted negatively as they will lose a part of the fees from the DEX.

Related: Hayden Adams: The Founder of Uniswap