This yr, the cryptocurrency market noticed a big lower in worth, dropping over $1.4 trillion. This decline was as a result of numerous points confronted by the {industry}, together with failed initiatives and an absence of liquidity.
The {industry} confronted a number of challenges, with a lot of distinguished gamers throughout the ecosystem submitting for chapter, together with BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager, Three Arrows Capital, and, extra just lately, FTX and Alameda.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) vertical suffered an analogous decline as total complete worth locked (TVL) – the full worth of all belongings held inside a DeFi product – throughout all protocols plummeted by 77%. The trigger behind the decline in DeFi TVL isn’t far-fetched.
A 35.51x hike on the playing cards if UNI hits ETH’s market cap?
In 2020, the U.S authorities carried out stimulus packages that resulted in a rise within the provide of U.S {dollars}, resulting in greater demand and rising costs (inflation) in 2021.
Nonetheless, with a view to fight this rising inflation, the Federal Reserve raised rates of interest in 2022. This made borrowing cash costlier and inspired traders and customers to cut back spending.
Because of this, traders moved away from speculative belongings class (cryptocurrencies) to place their cash in risk-free yields on U.S treasuries. This led to a extreme decline within the worth of a number of crypto-assets, the yield on DeFi investments, and DeFi TVL typically.
Supply: DefiLlama
Uniswap’s numerous variations: A 2022 retrospective
Launched in 2018, Uniswap is a decentralized cryptocurrency buying and selling protocol whereby customers can commerce cryptocurrency belongings.
The unique model of the Uniswap protocol, often known as Uniswap V1, was launched as a trial run to evaluate the effectiveness of the automated market maker (AMM) liquidity mannequin. In Might 2020, Uniswap V1 was changed by Uniswap V2, which launched quite a few enhancements and new options to the platform.
Uniswap V3, launched in Might 2021, shortly gained reputation in 2022 because it launched a sequence of necessary upgrades to the DEX. This included concentrated liquidity, versatile transaction charges, and vary orders.
This sequence of upgrades launched by Uniswap V3 led to its fast adoption, which induced its TVL to develop considerably above the 2 earlier variations. As per information from DeFiLlama, Uniswap V3’s TVL of $2.45 billion represented a 74% share of complete TVL for Uniswap.
In 2022, Uniswap V3 shortly overshadowed DEXs that existed earlier than it as elevated utilization led to a progress in its share of the full DEX buying and selling quantity.
What number of UNIs are you able to get for $1?
As of January 2022, Uniswap V3 held a 39.4% share of complete buying and selling quantity by DEXs, information from Dune Analytics revealed. By Might, its share of complete buying and selling quantity had peaked at 72%.
Apparently, Uniswap V3’s place was threatened throughout the FTX debacle as different DEXs noticed elevated utilization as a result of traders’ flight from centralized exchanges to DEXs. Because of this, its share of complete DEX buying and selling quantity fell to the touch a low of 36.5% on 11 November. This was its lowest level all through the 12-month interval.
This rebounded not lengthy after and was noticed at 46.5% as of 29 December. On a year-to-date foundation, Uniswap V3’s share of the full DEX buying and selling quantity grew by 27%.
Supply: Dune Analytics
Uniswap V3’s excessive buying and selling quantity was attributable to the constant progress within the depend of its each day customers. As per information from Dune Analytics, the regular progress in each day person depend positioned it atop all different DEXs because the DEX with essentially the most on a regular basis customers.
When FTX collapsed, Uniswap v3 logged a each day excessive depend of 25,552 customers on 9 November. It noticed essentially the most inflow of customers from centralized exchanges amid the market turmoil brought on by the surprising FTX turmoil.
As of 29 December, Uniswap v3 had a each day person depend of 12,949.
Supply: Dune Analytics
Regardless of the numerous success recorded by its V3 deployment in 2022, Uniswap couldn’t escape the influence of the extreme bearishness that induced many DeFi protocols to register a decline inside a 12-month interval.
Uniswap’s month-to-month buying and selling quantity peaked in January when the DEX logged a buying and selling quantity of $71 billion. Nonetheless, this declined steadily to $17 billion by December.
Supply: Dune Analytics
Uniswap: Key efficiency indicators in 2022
Uniswap noticed a steep decline in buying and selling quantity within the first three quarters of the yr. In line with information from Messari, the main DEX closed This autumn 2021 with a buying and selling quantity of $238.28 billion.
By the tip of Q1 2022 when the bear market grew to become fully-fledged and traders started transferring capital to U.S treasury payments, Uniswap’s buying and selling quantity had fallen by 21%. It closed the quarter with a buying and selling quantity of $189 billion.
Issues didn’t get higher in Q2. Terra LUNA’s grave demise created a contagion that led to the collapse of a number of different gamers within the {industry}. Buying and selling quantity throughout DeFi protocols fell, and DeFi TVL declined additional. Uniswap closed Q2 with a buying and selling quantity of $172 billion, an 8% decline QoQ.
This was adopted by an excellent steeper decline of 30% in buying and selling quantity by the tip of Q3, Messari reported.
Along with a fall in buying and selling quantity, provided liquidity on Uniswap fell as nicely. With end-of-period liquidity of $3.9 billion by the tip of Q3, this had fallen by over half of its worth for the reason that starting of the yr.
Likewise, charges paid to liquidity suppliers on Uniswap fell all year long.
Supply: Messari
UNI had a tricky time
UNI is a governance token for the Uniswap protocol, permitting holders to vote on adjustments to the protocol and take part in its decision-making processes. It is usually used as a utility token throughout the Uniswap platform, permitting customers to entry sure options and companies.
In the direction of the start of the yr, the token was buying and selling at $17.1, as per information from CoinMarketCap. This value stage remained UNI’s highest promoting value level throughout the 2022 bear market.
Exchanging fingers at $5.01 on the time of writing, UNI’s worth appears to have declined by over 71% in 2022.
Supply: CoinMarketCap
Concluding ideas
Uniswap confronted a tough yr as a result of a difficult macroeconomic surroundings, geopolitical uncertainty, and institutional liquidation. Though the DEX noticed a decline in buying and selling exercise throughout the yr, Uniswap strengthened its place within the crypto-industry by establishing an funding staff and an NFT market aggregator. These strikes have positioned the protocol to proceed to be a key participant within the crypto-economy.
