Uniswap Shines on Top-10 Crypto Leaderboard With Double-Digit Gains

Uniswap, whose logo is a unicorn, is a decentralized trading protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. Another way to look at it is as a decentralized exchange or DEX, which are growing in popularity in the cryptocurrency space. For its part, Uniswap boasts the highest trading volume of any DEX. Ryan Watkins, who is in research at Messari, tweeted in recent days about how Uniswap’s V3, the latest version of the protocol, is seeing a volume of USD 6.5 billion and is inching closer to Uniswap V2.

Uniswap’s native token, (UNI), is up by a double-digit percentage today, gaining 12% at last check and outperforming all of the top-10 cryptocurrencies. Twitter account Crypto Dream, which provides technical analysis on bitcoin and altcoins, published a chart on UNI, saying that while it scares some, the “chart is bullish.” Indeed, there are a couple of reasons to be excited about Uniswap. It is important to note, however, that cryptocurrencies remain a nascent asset class and can be more volatile (and riskier) than most other investments.

Mainstream Bump

Uniswap received a bump after mainstream financial publication The Wall Street Journal on May 24 featured the DEX in an article about crypto exchanges that compete with Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN). Uniswap has been gobbling up market share at its centralized peer Coinbase’s expense.

The Journal cites Messari data that shows Uniswap’s trading volume last month surpassed USD 36 billion vs. Coinbase’s USD 110 billion. The appeal of DEXs like Uniswap to crypto traders is that they get to maintain control of their coins rather than leave them on the trading platform, which is the model of centralized exchanges like Coinbase. Uniswap’s decentralized nature removes the risk of the protocol being shut down by any entity.

DeFi Depot

DeFi has emerged as one of the hottest trends in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, and Uniswap is at the center of it. Uniswap is where thousands of DeFi tokens are traded. Uniswap’s popularity seems to grow commensurate with the rise of the DeFi market.

With more than USD 55 billion in total value locked in the DeFi market, representing the value of assets that are locked in a DeFi protocol, Uniswap has the wind at its back for the foreseeable future. One thing to keep in mind is that the swift rise of the DeFi market has also placed a target on this segment’s back by the regulators.