Uniswap is a popular decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Ethereum (ETH) network. The decentralized trading platform has become so popular that it now surpasses the major American crypto exchange Coinbase in trading volume. Uniswap outperformed Coinbase in both quarters of this year.
Crypto Trading Volume: Uniswap Overtakes Coinbase
In the fourth quarter of 2021, around the historic peak of the crypto market, the trading volume on Coinbase was twice that of Uniswap. The two were worth $540 billion and $235 billion, respectively, this quarter.
The bear market has little left of these astronomical volumes. Coinbase and other centralized exchanges in particular suffered, while DeFi held up surprisingly well. Uniswap’s volume was $155 billion in the second quarter of this year, and Coinbase’s volume was $145 billion. This comes from data provided by Ryan Rasmussen, a researcher at crypto asset manager Bitwise.
Uniswap flipped Coinbase’s spot trading volume in Q1 and Q2 2023. pic.twitter.com/Aacp2vTaVJ
— Ryan Rasmussen (@RasterlyRock) August 22, 2023
This transition is indicative of the past bear market. In particular, the demise of crypto exchange FTX was not a good advertisement for centralized crypto platforms, leading many traders to turn to DeFi in the aftermath.
Uniswap is working on a new version
On Uniswap, among other things, it is possible to trade crypto assets without the influence of a centralized party. It is also possible to provide liquidity by locking tokens in pools and earn trading commissions that way.
Uniswap is currently working on the fourth version of the protocol: Uniswap V4. This upcoming version will allow limit orders among many new improvements.
Although a DEX offers many advantages over centralized platforms like Coinbase and Binance, the DeFi sector is still in its infancy. For example, DeFi protocols regularly fall victim to hacks. For example, one of the largest DeFi platforms, Curve Finance, was recently hacked. More than $40 million was stolen.