TL;DR
- Unichain has surpassed Ethereum as the leading chain by transaction volume on Uniswap v4, capturing nearly 75% of the market.
- This shift has been driven by liquidity incentives and significantly lower operational costs.
- While Ethereum still dominates Uniswap v3, Unichain positions itself as the most promising Layer 2 within the rapidly expanding DeFi ecosystem.
Since its launch in January 2025, Uniswap v4 has been praised for introducing revolutionary features like hooks for custom code execution, dynamic fees, gas savings, and native ETH support. In this context, Unichain has managed to stand out by becoming the main operational channel for this version, pushing Ethereum down to less than 20% market share.
According to recent data from Dune Analytics, Unichain now handles 75% of Uniswap v4’s volume, a meteoric rise that began accelerating in mid-April.
Unichain Revolutionizes The DeFi Market
One of the pillars of this ascent is its aggressive incentive program: Unichain has deployed $45 million to attract liquidity, significantly increasing both active addresses and total value locked (TVL), which now reaches $800 million according to DeFiLlama. This volume positions it as the third-largest Layer 2 by TVL, demonstrating that well-crafted strategies can reshape the dynamics of the DeFi ecosystem.
Moreover, Unichain operates on the Optimism Superchain architecture, offering approximately 95% lower transaction costs compared to Ethereum Layer 1 and one-second block times, with plans to implement 250 ms sub-blocks to achieve near-instant transactions. Even emerging projects and DeFi startups are migrating to Unichain, seeking to leverage these benefits to scale faster, reduce friction, and reach global audiences with fewer technological and economic barriers.
Furthermore, Unichain’s developer community has launched several educational initiatives, online hackathons, grants, and partnerships to empower creators, boost cross-chain functionality, and attract new investors eager to explore the evolving decentralized finance space, providing additional resources and long-term sustainability to the ecosystem. As the network continues to grow, it’s attracting more liquidity providers, traders, and decentralized finance protocols.
The Pro-Crypto Wave And The Future Of Layer 2s
The crypto community is watching this shift with enthusiasm, seeing it as a clear example of the disruptive potential of Layer 2 solutions. While Ethereum remains an indispensable giant, Unichain’s success on Uniswap v4 shows that healthy competition drives innovation.
This moment could mark the beginning of an era where efficiency and incentives become the keys to DeFi leadership, consolidating the pro-crypto vision of an open, fast, and accessible ecosystem for everyone.
