Uniswap Bounces Back From Slow Summer

Solana’s decentralized exchange (DEX) dominance over Ethereum’s has been a staple of 2024, but Uniswap, the largest Ethereum DEX, is regaining traction.

After Solana vs Ethereum weekly DEX dominance topped out at over 200% in November, the ratio has reverted to 120% over the last week as Ethereum and Base DEX volumes surged, while Solana’s remained flat. Base is an Ethereum Layer 2.

Over the last seven days, Solana’s weekly DEX volume is down 0.15% to $30 billion, while Ethereum’s is up 10% to $25 billion, and Base’s is up 2% to $13 billion.

Throughout the bull market, Solana has solidified itself as a top competitor to Ethereum. The chain attracted more new developers in 2024, and the SOL price is up 200% over the last year, compared to ETH’s 24%.DEX volume is a key metric for analyzing ecosystem health, as DEX swaps are one of the most common transaction types amongst onchain users. Solana’s DEX dominance in 2024 is indicative of the demand for Solana ecosystem services compared to Ethereum ecosystem services.

When comparing Layer 1 blockchains, Solana still outperforms Ethereum with a 125% ratio, but when including the top two Ethereum Layer 2s, Base and Arbitrum, the Ethereum ecosystem boasts the larger share of DEX dominance with a 155% ratio.

Uniswap is the primary benefactor of this trend reversion, with daily active users (DAU) rising to 890,000 over the last week, an all-time high for 2024, compared with just 612,000 the week before, according to TokenTerminal.

The UNI token is also doing well, gaining over 90% in the last 30 days. It’s changing hands at $17.4 per token, or a $10 billion market capitalization.

It’s unclear if there is a specific catalyst for the increased Ethereum DEX volume, the Ethereum volume on decentralized automated market maker (AMM) Balancer is up nearly 300% over the last week with the launch of its v3.

PumpFun activity, on the other hand, is down from its Nov. 19 peak, with total fees, tokens launched, and volume falling nearly 30% on average. PumpFun metrics are indicative of memecoin activity, which drives a large portion of Solana’s DEX volume.

In addition to the increase in DEX usage, particularly on the Base blockchain, Uniswap Labs is preparing for the launch of its own Layer 2 called Unichain. While the launch date for Unichain is still undisclosed, the public gained access to the ecosystem for a few hours on Nov. 12 after developers’ early access was leaked.