Uniswap’s UNI: Still the King of Swaps—or Just Hanging On?
Let’s call it what it is: Uniswap built the house that DeFi trades in. With $1.8 trillion in annual volume, it’s not just another protocol—it’s infrastructure. But dominance doesn’t guarantee growth. UNI’s sitting at $12.60 with a $7.5B market cap (as of June 5, 2025), and while it’s still the most recognizable DEX brand out there, cracks are starting to show. It’s down 60% from its 2021 peak. User numbers are slipping. And rivals are circling. The V4 upgrade is getting traction online, but behind the hype, daily active users hover around 50,000. Solid—but not explosive. And in a post-2021 world where attention is currency, that’s a problem. So is Uniswap holding its crown, or slowly giving it away?
Uniswap’s Grip on Liquidity—and What’s Threatening It
The core of Uniswap’s power? Liquidity. Its AMM model changed the game. V3’s concentrated liquidity let LPs chase real yields—up to 20% on high-volume pairs like ETH/USDC. With V4, Uniswap added “hooks,” letting developers customize pools with automated features. TVL? $6B and holding, per DefiLlama. The platform still moves massive weight, and governance fees—raised to 0.25% on key pairs—generated $50M in Q1 2025 alone. UNI holders do have a say in all this—governing fees, upgrades, and integrations across chains like Polygon and Arbitrum. Swaps are affordable on L2s—around $0.50 a trade versus Ethereum’s $5 base. But let’s not pretend the throne is unshakable. Curve is clawing market share with its stablecoin pairs. PancakeSwap dominates BSC. And newer DEXs like Aerodrome and dYdX are faster, cheaper, and hungrier. In 2022, Uniswap had half of DEX trading volume. Now? That’s down to 35%. And while V4 is ambitious, it’s not a guaranteed moat. A DeFi dev at ETHDenver summed it up: “Uniswap’s still the benchmark—but there’s blood in the water.”
Under the Hood: Numbers That Matter
| Protocol | TVL | 24h Volume | Notable Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uniswap | $6B | $5B | V4 “hooks” + liquidity |
| Curve | $2B | $1.5B | Stablecoin specialist |
| PancakeSwap | $1.8B | $2B | BSC retail dominance |
Volume is strong—$5B a day is no joke—but it’s down from $10B at the 2021 peak. Wallet activity is slipping too: 200K monthly users as tracked by Etherscan, down 10% year-over-year. Whale wallets offloaded UNI in May, and funding rates have hovered neutral on Binance, signaling hesitation, not conviction. And tokenomics? Still messy. A 1B total supply, only 60% of it circulating, means governance power is top-heavy. Whale votes still dominate major proposals, and that’s not winning over the next wave of DeFi users.
What Comes Next?
There’s no question that Uniswap’s future hinges on how well V4 lands—and how fast it scales cross-chain. If adoption on Base or Optimism surges, UNI could see real upside. CoinPriceForecast pegs $20 by 2026, which feels optimistic but not outlandish. UNI has the infrastructure, the reputation, and the integrations. It’s still the default setting for most of DeFi. But if newer platforms like Curve or Aerodrome manage to build faster, cheaper, and stickier products, Uniswap’s moat could erode quicker than anyone expects. And then there’s regulation. The SEC’s 2024 probe into DEX fee models hasn’t gone away, and Uniswap’s size makes it a clear target. A governance exploit—like the 2023 flash loan incident—wouldn’t just hurt sentiment. It could crater trust.
Final Word: Still Strong, But Not Untouchable
Uniswap isn’t going away. It’s still DeFi’s flagship. But the glow of invincibility is fading. V4 is a bet on innovation. But governance concerns, declining volume dominance, and aggressive competition are all real. The next few quarters will answer a simple question: is Uniswap evolving fast enough, or just hoping the brand carries it through? Either way, the swap wars are far from over.