Popular decentralized exchange (DEX) platform on Ethereum, Uniswap, celebrates a major milestone. Via its official Twitter account, the team behind the protocol announced that it has processed $1 trillion in all-time trading volume.
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As seen below, this metric has been on an uptrend since September 2020. At that time, the protocol processed less than $10 billion in cumulative trading volume.
The $1 trillion milestone was reached in less than a year as Uniswap went processing around $250 billion in cumulative trading volume to $750 trillion in March 2022. The metric has been on the rise despite the current downtrend across global markets.
The team behind Uniswap stated the following:
It’s been one hell of a ride. As of today, the Uniswap Protocol has passed a lifetime cumulative trading volume of $1 Trillion (…). We couldn’t have reached this milestone without the Uniswap community that continues to build alongside us. Here’s to the next Trillion.
Additional data provided by the team behind the protocol suggest Uniswap’s popularity has been increasing along with its trading volume. The DEX’s market share surpassed 50% in August 2020 and has reached over 60% since that time.
In addition, the number of Uniswap Users recently hit almost 4 million. In January 2021, the metric stood at less than 1 million users. This represents a 4x increase in a little over a year. The inventor of Uniswap, Hayden Adams, added:
$1 trillion all-time volume. I don’t tweet milestones as often these days, but four commas blows my mind. Never expected Uniswap to grow the way that it has. Thanks to everyone who has been along for the ride.
What’s Behind This Ethereum DEX Success?
There are three potential events that have resulted in Uniswap’s increase in market share and popularity. The first in the deployment of its second iteration, Uniswap v2 introduced new features and functionalities replicated across the entire DeFi sector.
The second is the launch of its governance token, UNI. The token rolled out around September 2020, when Uniswap’s fundamental began their upwards ascend, and it was airdropped to all users that ever interacted with the protocol.
The event marked an inflection point in the adoption of DeFi protocols. The next year, the sector boomed with the introduction of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into the mainstream and more people onboarding it.
The third event was the launch of DEX’s third iteration, Uniswap v3. This version offered more rewards to users with active investment strategies.
Today, most blockchain networks can’t exist without a DeFi sector and their own version of Uniswap. Despite its popularity, the DEX and other protocols have been affected by the current downside price action across large cryptocurrencies.
Data from Token Terminal suggests Uniswap peaked in September 2021 when its total value locked (TVL) was close to $10 billion and its trading volume followed. Ever since then, this metric has been in a downtrend and currently appears to be consolidating.
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At the time of writing, UNI’s price stands at $5.57 with a 5.5% loss in the last 24-hours.