Uniswap’s native L2 chain goes live

Uniswap is already offering access to Unichain, its native L2 network. The launch arrived just days after Uniswap unrolled V4 and included it in its standard swap routing. 

Uniswap will start offering services on its native L2, just days after launching V4. Uniswap is one of the most liquid apps and a highly active smart contract on Ethereum. The shift to a native L2 will test the readiness of Uniswap users to move their liquidity. Unichain is already accessible from Uniswap’s web app and main wallet, open for bridging, swaps, and becoming a liquidity provider.

Unichain mainnet is live ✨

✸ Fast with low fees
✸ Built for cross-chain liquidity
✸ Prioritizes decentralization from day one

You can now deploy DeFi apps, launch tokens, swap, provide liquidity, and more pic.twitter.com/MqJQwum4Bf

— Unichain (@unichain) February 11, 2025

Unichain will be part of the Optimism Superchain, joining OP Mainnet, Kraken’s Ink, and Soneium. Unichain also reached out to developers, aiming to become a hub for DeFi apps. The launch arrives at a time when Ethereum-based DeFi is struggling to retain its position. Unichain also launched at a time of minimal Ethereum fees, when even OP Mainnet paid just $1.59K to the L1 chain.

Most of the Uniswap liquidity is in V3 pairs, making the contract one of the most active Ethereum gas users. Uniswap runs on a total of 31 chains, each with different liquidity flows not controlled by the DEX. 

Uniswap carries more than $1B in its V3 version, though starting to move more swaps through V4 pairs. The V4 markets on Ethereum and Base make up around $8.5M in daily volumes, still a small addition to the older Uniswap markets. However, the Uniswap V4 router took the second spot among top gas burners, surpassing the previous V3 leader. 

Unichain already carries apps and smart contracts

Unichain already deployed over 700 smart contracts, indicative of token launches. In the first hours of the new chain, over 8K new wallets were created, with over 150K transactions. Unichain has one-second blocks, which will speed up to 250 milliseconds after an upgrade. 

Hours after the launch, Circle announced its partnership with the chain, offering tools to integrate USDC on the new network. 

USDC and Circle’s developer tools are now live on @unichain!

Developers building on Unichain now have access to USDC, CCTP, and Programmable Wallets to build secure and scalable onchain apps that can easily onboard users across blockchains.

As the world’s largest regulated… pic.twitter.com/I07knUOvbv

— Circle (@circle) February 11, 2025

Unichain has already attracted more than 80 apps and services. The new L2 arrives at a time when there seems to be an over-saturation of chains. For Uniswap, however, the launch will not mean an empty chain, as the exchange is already one of the top fee producers and the main source of price discovery for Ethereum-based tokens. 

The launch of Unichain will be an indicator of the general health of Ethereum’s L2 traffic. For some, the L2 does not have sufficient users and has mostly gone silent after their initial airdrop farming stages. Unichain will have no airdrop since the UNI token was already launched and distributed to end users. 

Unichain’s features at launch made it aim for a Stage 1 chain status, with sufficiently decentralized transaction options. However, Uniswap still has to allow posting L2 messages to L1 even without the consensus of the Security Council. This obstacle is a potential for on-chain censorship, and Uniswap will have to amend it to receive full Stage 1 status. The status is important, as those few decentralized chains can hope for mentions by Vitalik Buterin.

UNI rallied ahead of the Unichain announcement

UNI rallied above $10 just before the news of Unichain, later retreating to $9.50. The UNI token is considered slightly undervalued at this range, based on Uniswap’s value locked and fees. The asset rallied ahead of the news, as Uniswap set up expectations for Unichain through pre-announcements.

In the week leading up to the launch of Unichain, a whale accumulated 1.70M UNI, now valued at $16.07M. The tokens were taken from Binance and into a custodial wallet, specifically created to deploy USDT liquidity. For now, the wallet still holds the UNI with a small gain. 

UNI is expected to become one of the leading tokens in case of an ongoing bull market in 2025. For now, UNI remains relatively subdued due to shifting DEX traffic to Solana’s Raydium. Uniswap is still among the top 10 fee producers, with $142.45M in fees for the past month. The DEX lags behind Raydium’s $270M for the extremely busy last month, and even PancakeSwap achieved over $207M in monthly fees.

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