2020 was a breakout year for the Uniswap protocol. We wanted to review some key accomplishments from the past 12 months and share some insight into our roadmap for the coming year.
2020 REVIEW.
V2 launch introduces new primitives and efficiency gains:
Uniswap v2 launched in May, bringing support for arbitrary ERC20/ERC20 pairs, robust time weighted average price oracles, flash swaps, and significant architecture improvements.
Flash swaps have generated $4.8bn volume since May, producing $14.4m in liquidity provider fees.
Uniswap’s TWAP implementation continues to see adoption as key oracle infrastructure, counting integrations across over 50 protocols including Compound, Augur v2, and Empty Set Dollar — second only to Chainlink.
While ETH remains the dominant pair numeraire, Uniswap v2 supports over 4,400 non-ETH pairs, including 7 of the 25 most liquid pairs at the time of this post.
Volumes surge to new heights:
The Uniswap protocol supported more than $58bn volume over the course of 2020, up 15,000% from $390m in 2019.
In September, the protocol briefly surpassed Coinbase on weekly volumes. Today, Uniswap is the 5th largest venue for crypto spot trading in the world.
Uniswap’s liquidity rivals that of centralized counterparts:
The Uniswap protocol currently commands over $2bn in liquidity, up 17,000% from $12m at the start of the year.
Over 68,000 unique addresses are currently providing liquidity across 27,000 unique trading pairs.
Users gravitate towards decentralized trading:
The protocol’s MAU figures have grown month-on-month since the launch of v2, with December surpassing 290k unique addresses.
Uniswap trades regularly account for 25% of Ethereum network transactions.
Meanwhile, the protocol’s median trade size in 2020 was just $634.
Uniswap as neutral, robust exchange infrastructure:
Uniswap now counts over 200 integrations across protocols, data analytics services, advanced interfaces, wallets, and more.
Highlights include Uniswap LP shares serving as collateral in MakerDAO; Uniswap flash loans being used for execution in Aave v2 collateral swaps, and Fireblock’s integration of Uniswap into its institutional-focused DeFi API.
Uniswap’s governance brings the protocol closer to self-sustainability:
Uniswap governance counts roughly 5,000 unique delegates and 6,000 unique delegators, including active participation from many of the crypto community’s leading ambassadors.
2021 ROADMAP
Improve automated market making:
The Uniswap team continues to research and develop market leading AMM technology, making considerable progress on v3.
V3’s design is driven by a desire to drastically improve the AMM experience for both swappers and LPs, increasing capital efficiency and flexibility while introducing superior execution.
Explore scaling solutions:
Scaling solutions present a path to lower latency trading, faster settlement, and cheaper transaction costs.
Emphasis on governance:
Uniswap’s long term success is closely tied to its ability to attract the best available community talent and to engage in effective long-term, decentralized decision-making.
Expansion of governance requires both improved tooling (see Sybil) and focused initiatives like governance’s Uniswap Grants Program.
As a result of the active participation in governance by thousands of delegates, the Uniswap core team members plan to participate more directly in governance in their personal capacity over the course of 2021: this includes publicly advocating for or against proposals.
Additionally, the core team may delegate votes to others or themselves, although they will vote with no more than 10% of their own UNI. Governance efforts will continue to be community-led.
We’re eternally grateful to the Ethereum community for helping us achieve so much over the past 12 months and are enormously excited for the year to come.
Contact
To get in touch, please email
[email protected]To get in touch, please telegram @uniswapkevin
