The launch of Uniswap’s UNI token is undoubtedly one of the biggest feats seen in DeFi ecosystems. The momentum of this token, from its first hours of life, led Uniswap to become the first DeFi platform to surpass $2 billion in locked value.
DeFiPulse, an analytics platform that displays metrics on decentralized finance protocols (DeFi) most recognized and popular in the ecosystem, reveals that Uniswap became the first DeFi protocol to surpass $2 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) within its platform. Uniswap’s achievement marks a milestone in the history of the protocol and DeFi ecosystems, being the first time that a protocol of this type reaches, and exceeds, this amount of locked value.
Part of this achievement is due to the recent launch of its UNI governance token, which announced the platform just a few days ago.
A response to SushiSwap and more
UNI was born with the purpose of protecting Uniswap's financial infrastructure, which was being taken over by its counterpart and rival SushiSwap. This other DeFi protocol managed to take, in a few days, more than 75% of the liquidity that Uniswap had through an attack known as Vampire Attack, which migrated much of Uniswap's liquidity to itself. Thus, as a response to the newborn SushiSwap, Uniswap developers announced the launch of their UNI token, which was listed on over 12 exchanges and cryptocurrency exchanges on the same day of its launch.
Similarly, in less than 24 hours, Uniswap's liquidity pools accumulated over $750 million. Users of the project went wild as they received a reward in UNI tokens for providing and maintaining liquidity within the protocol. At press time, UniSwap muestra a total of $2,09 billion in TVL.
But in addition to answering directly to SushiSwap, the actions of UNI developers also point to the protocol's desire to take advantage of the opportunity represented by the liquidity mining boom or Liquidity miningThis new concept of decentralized finance allows for large economic benefits for its investors and liquidity providers, while ensuring the generation of liquidity within DeFi projects.
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The DeFi Protocol of the Year 2020
Uniswap recorded a 780% growth in its total value locked (TVL) over the past month, making it one of the best decentralized finance protocols of 2020. Now, with $2,09 billion in TVL, Uniswap accounts for around 18% of the TVL across all DeFi protocols, followed by MakerDAO, another protocol that is also close to reaching this historical value with a TVL of $1,97 billion.
Liquidity on Uniswap is primarily represented by Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) y Tether (USDT), and the famous high-yield agriculture, yield farming, has become the main recipient of this liquidity. UNI farming is now the main priority for Uniswap users, who want to get the highest possible return for keeping their tokens locked within the platform. The main liquidity pools managed on Uniswap are: ETH/WBTC, ETH/DAI, ETH/USDT and ETH/USDC, where the most popular is the ETH/WBTC pair, handling around 30% of the total liquidity. Together, these liquidity pools handle 80% of Uniswap's total liquidity.
UNI is ranked number 42 among the most important cryptocurrencies and tokens on the market and maintains a value close to $4,66 USD as of this writing. UNI’s value dropped 39% from the value the token enjoyed just hours after its launch. Meanwhile, SUSHI, SushiSwap’s token, saw a drop of almost 80% in value, and currently maintains a price close to $1,36 USD per unit.
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