Uniswap Launches UniswapX Protocol, Sparking 3% Surge In UNI’s Price

Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX), has announced the launch of UniswapX, a permissionless and open-source protocol for trading across automated market makers (AMMs) and other liquidity sources. 

According to the announcement, UniswapX aims to improve self-custody swapping and grow on-chain trading by offering better prices through the aggregation of liquidity sources, gas-free swapping, protection against maximal extractable value (MEV), and no cost for failed transactions. 

Uniswap Latest Protocol Launch 

UniswapX addresses the growing complexity of on-chain routing and the fragmentation of liquidity pools resulting from the increasing number of customized pool designs. 

The protocol outsources routing complexity to a network of third-party fillers who compete to fill swaps using on-chain liquidity like AMM pools or their private inventory. This allows swappers to use the Uniswap interface without worrying about getting the best price and ensures that transactions are always transparently recorded and settled on-chain.

Per the announcement, gas-free swapping is a key feature of UniswapX. Swappers sign a unique off-chain order, which is then submitted on-chain by fillers who pay gas on the swappers’ behalf. 

This eliminates the need for swappers to pay gas or hold a chain’s native network token to trade. MEV protection is also provided by UniswapX, which returns MEV that would be left on the table to be captured by an arbitrage transaction to swappers through improved prices.

UniswapX also has plans to launch a cross-chain version later this year that combines swapping and bridging into one seamless action. 

This will provide users with the ability to exchange between different blockchain networks in a seamless and trustless manner. This is made possible through the use of bridges, which are specialized smart contracts that enable the transfer of assets between different blockchain networks.

In addition, instead of receiving a bridge-specific token, users can choose which assets to receive on the destination chain. 

Strong Resistance Causes UNI To Retract

After the announcement of the launch of the UniswapX protocol, the price of Uniswap’s native token, UNI, experienced a surge of around 3%. UNI reached a high of $6.152, a level not seen since April 2023. The excitement generated by the launch of this new protocol led to a surge in demand for UNI, as traders anticipated improved user experience and better prices for on-chain trading.

However, UNI faced a strong resistance line at this same level, causing the token to retrace and lose all the gains generated by the announcement. At present, UNI is trading at $5.738, down by 1.4% in the last 24 hours. Despite this recent dip, UNI has posted significant gains in the 30-day timeframe, with a staggering 28% profit.

UniswapUNI’s retrace on the 1-day chart. Source: UNIUSDT on TradingView.com

On the flip side, according to Token Terminal data, Uniswap’s market cap (circulating) currently stands at $4.76 billion, representing a 28.3% increase over the past 30 days. The market cap (fully diluted) is $5.77 billion, up 26.01% over the same period.

Uniswap’s total value locked (TVL) is currently $3.67 billion, a decrease of 0.54% over the past 30 days. The price fees (P/F) ratio (fully diluted) stands at 17.50x, indicating that the market values Uniswap’s future earnings potential at a premium. Uniswap’s trading volume (annualized) is $349.19 billion, representing a decrease of 8.05%.

In terms of user activity, Uniswap has had an average of 69.640 daily active users over the past 30 days, representing an increase of 2.7%. 

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com