DeFi Summer 3.0? Uniswap overtakes Ethereum on fees, DeFi outperforms

Published at: June 23, 2022

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap has overtaken its host blockchain Ethereum in terms of fees paid over a seven-day rolling average.

The surge appears part of a recent spate of high demand for DeFi amid the current bear market. Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms such as Aave and Synthetix have seen surges in fees paid over the past seven days, while their native tokens and others such as Compound (COMP) have also boomed in price.

According to data from Crypto Fees, traders on Uniswap accounted for an average daily total of $4.87 million worth of fees between June 15 and June 21, overtaking the average fees from Ethereum users which accounted for $4.58 million.

Uniswap’s most advanced v3 protocol (based on the Ethereum mainnet) accounted for the lion’s share of the total fees with $4.4 million, while the v2 variant also contributed a notable $336,556.

During this period, Ethereum’s total fees only outpaced Uniswap’s on two days out of the seven. In terms of a peak day of fees generated, Uniswap topped out at $8.36 million on June 15, beating out Ethereum on the same day at $7.99 million.

Uniswap enables peer-to-peer (P2P) swaps of Ethereum-based tokens without having a central authority to facilitate trades. This is achieved by automated smart contracts. Under Uniswap’s fee structure, fees are paid by traders to liquidity providers who receive 100% of the fees on the DEX.

Considering Ethereum is the blockchain home to the majority of DeFi, and is known for its expensive fee structure, a DEX such as Uniswap beating out the blockchain in fees over a week is notable.

According to data from CoinGecko, Uniswap (UNI) has pumped 17.4% over the past seven days to sit at $5.18 at the time of writing. Recent acquisitions of the NFT marketplace aggregator Genie and the appointment of the former president of the New York Stock Exchange Stacey Cunningham as an adviser at Uniswap Labs may have contributed to this.

DeFi surge

Uniswap is not the only platform to see a surge in its fees and token price of late, as data is also showing strong investor demand for several DeFi platforms despite the current bear market.

Lending protocol Aave and synthetic derivatives trading platform Synthetix in particular, are ranked third and fifth in terms of average fees paid over the past seven days with $981,883 and $600,214, respectively.

Much like Uniswap, Aave saw a surge of fees on June 15, as its total increased by 69% to $1.44 million. Its native token Aave (AAVE) has also pumped 22% since then.

Sythentix’s rise has been the most notable. The platform saw a whopping 928% increase in fees paid between June 11 and June 13 as the figure rose to $843,297. The total fees then dropped to roughly $400,000 by June 17 before surging another 150% to roughly $1 million on June 19.

The boom can also be seen by observing Synthetix (SNX), the price of which has gained 105% since Sunday to sit at $3.08 at the time of writing. A key reason behind this appears to be the Synthetix Improvement Proposal 120 that went live last week that enables users to “atomically exchange assets without fee reclamation,” therefore increasing the speed of trading.

Bucking this trend, fees on lending platform Compound have been declining since April, and generated a mere seven-day rolling average of $11,753 over the past week, though its native token COMP has increased 16.7% within that time frame to sit at $40.50.