Uniswap Spot Volume Surpassed Coinbase In 2023

Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange, has been steadily beating Coinbase, the top U.S. crypto exchange, by spot trading volume throughout 2023.

Data shared by Ryan Rasmussen, a researcher at Bitwise, a crypto asset manager, shows that Uniswap processed roughly $110B worth of trades during the second quarter, compared to around $90B by Coinbase.

Uniswap’s quarterly spot volume exceeded Coinbase’s for the first time in Q1, with the exchanges facilitating approximately $155B and $145B worth of trades, respectively.

Coinbase experienced a larger loss of spot trading activity amid the bear market with an 83% drawdown from roughly $540B in Q4 2021. Uniswap volume dropped by half from $235B over the same period.

The data shows the resilience of bluechip decentralized protocols amid the prolonged crypto downtrend.

The 2022 bear market wreaked havoc on centralized crypto firms, with exchanges, lenders, and venture capital firms losing billions of dollars worth of their customers' assets. The carnage bolstered the case for decentralized protocols operating according to the laws of code rather than the whims of human beings.

The UNI token is down 10% in 2023 despite the exchange’s volume increasing this year. UNI remains 90% below its May 2021 all-time high.

V4 and UniswapX

The milestone comes as Uniswap is working to expand its market share with new products.

In June, Uniswap published the code for its next iteration, dubbed v4. The new protocol will feature limit orders, automated fee revenue compounding for liquidity providers, and customizable plugins. Uniswap v4 pools can also act as a time-weighted average market maker (TWAMM), allowing traders to execute large orders over time.

Uniswap Labs plans to launch v4 sometime after Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Dencun.

Uniswap also introduced its DEX aggregation protocol, UniswapX, last month. The protocol allows third-party entities acting as market makers to compete for order flow by providing the best possible price to traders. Uniswap said the protocol also offers protection against Maximal Extractable Value. UniswapX is currently available in beta to users who opt in.