• Uniswap is growing, with over 4 million swappers recorded on Layer 2 networks in 30 days.
• The most important L2 protocols driving this growth include Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon.

Renowned decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap recently clinched a key milestone, recording over four million swappers on Layer 2 (L2) platforms monthly. This is a major achievement for exchange as it is almost twice its previous all-time high, according to Uniswap Labs. It also represents the growing popularity of L2 in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

L2 Activities Spike on Uniswap

According to data compiled by Dune Analytics, prominent L2 solutions such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Base, Zora, and zkSync are behind the 4 million swaps on Uniswap. These platforms have been instrumental in scaling Ethereum, providing a seamless experience for users and developers alike.

Arbitrum (ARB) has seen a substantial influx of users due to its robust security and low fees. As previously reported by Crypto News Flash, Arbitrum was the first L2 to surpass $150 billion in swap volume. The protocol is designed to improve the capabilities of Ethereum smart contracts, improving their speed and scalability. 

Note that Arbitrum uses ArbGas to keep track of the cost of execution on an Arbitrum chain. Every Arbitrum VM instruction has an ArbGas cost, and the calculation cost is the sum of the ArbGas fees for the instructions as against Ethereum’s gas limit.

Optimism (OP) has also become a popular choice for DeFi projects. OP is similar to Arbitrum in that it is only deployed when faulty blocks are detected rather than with every transaction. Cross-chain bridges exist on both networks, allowing tokens to flow between layer 1 and layer 2. 

Optimism led its peers in terms of developer activity in May with a score of 541, per Crypto News Flash’s earlier announcement. Optimism is achieving even more decentralization with a recent new fault proofs upgrade, according to a prior report by Crypto News Flash. Previously, only the Optimism Security Council had the authority to request withdrawals. However, the fault proofs have given users the ability to request withdrawals as well as question them, 

The Ethereum Layer-2 network Base is not excluded from the recent rally on Uniswap. In early June, the protocol surged to over $8 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), surpassing Optimism and becoming the second-largest Ethereum L2 network. With support from Coinbase, Base has grown remarkably since its August 2023 launch.

In a recent development, SynFutures, an on-chain perp protocol, launched on Base. As a result, users can now trade and provide liquidity on SynFutures V3 through Base while earning points.

Reaction from UNI

While the surge in L2 swaps on Uniswaps signals a fundamental shift for the ecosystem, the native token UNI appears to be trading sideways. At press time, UNI is trading at $8.87, demonstrating a decline of 1.84% in the past day. It has a market cap of $5 billion.

Nonetheless, analysts are watching, hoping the token regains its momentum. Uniswap’s resistance level is forecasted to be around $10.15 and $12.90, indicating a long way to go for the token’s recovery.