Uniswap Labs and holders of the UNI token are poised to benefit significantly from the launch of Unichain, a new layer 2 blockchain. According to Michael Nadeau, founder of DeFi Report, the initiative could generate nearly $500 million annually from fees that would otherwise go to the Ethereum network.
Nadeau highlighted in an October 13 post on X that Unichain could redirect $368 million that was previously paid to Ethereum validators last year directly into the hands of Uniswap Labs and UNI tokenholders. With full ownership of the validators on Unichain, Uniswap Labs will also capture all Maximum Extractable Value (MEV), rather than allowing Ethereum validators to take a cut, which he estimates to be about 10% of total fees—approximately $100 million over the past year.
He added that liquidity providers on Uniswap could also see advantages from this new blockchain, as they will have opportunities to participate in settlement and MEV capture through staking.
However, Nadeau pointed out that Ethereum validators and ETH holders are likely to face losses with Unichain’s launch, as less ETH will be burned and fewer fees will be routed back to the Ethereum blockchain.
Over the last year, Uniswap has amassed over $1.3 billion in trading and settlement fees across multiple chains, including Ethereum, Optimism, BNB Chain, Base, and Polygon. Uniswap, which is the largest decentralized exchange by trading volume, launched Unichain on October 10, promising faster transactions, lower costs, and improved interoperability across various blockchain platforms.
The launch has generated mixed reactions among decentralized finance (DeFi) experts. While some argue that another layer 2 blockchain is unnecessary, advocates believe that Unichain, designed specifically for DeFi protocols, will provide a more seamless user experience, enhance liquidity concentration, and reduce fragmentation issues across chains.
Conversely, skeptics have referenced a September 2022 post by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who criticized the concept of a dedicated layer 2 blockchain for Uniswap. “Uniswap’s main value proposition is that you can get a trade done in 30 seconds without any hassle,” Buterin wrote. “A Uniswap chain or even a rollup makes no sense in that context.”
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