On Wednesday morning, the uni token (quotation UNI) native to the decentralized finance exchange (DeFi) Uniswap has passed the $ 15 per token threshold on Coinbase. As of press time, it has increased by more than 92% in one week and by 1.300% since the token's debut in September 2020, according to CoinGecko.
Uniswap breaks the DeFi summer records
Valued at $ 4,2 billion, Uniswap's UNI has the highest market cap of any DeFi token on the market, according to research firm Messari. The governance token has been involved in the 2020-21 bitcoin bull run along with other DeFi tokens.
At $ 25,1 billion, DeFi Pulse's Total Value Locked (TVL) metric - similar to assets under management (AUM) - has grown nearly $ 10 billion since January 1, up 136% year on year.
As a governance token, UNI holders can vote on decisions regarding Uniswap version 2, for example on how Uniswap's treasury will be spent. The exchange's weekly volume also surpassed the values recorded during its impressive initial run during the “DeFi summer”.
According to info.uniswap, during the first three weeks of January, the volume averaged around $ 5,6 billion, while the liquidity available on the exchange has consistently stood above $ 3 billion.
These figures are even better than those obtained during Uniswap's summer run, which saw the exchange briefly exceed trading volumes on Coinbase, soon in IPO. Not bad for a unicorn.
At the time, Uniswap had donated what is called a symbolic "airdrop" to anyone who has ever used the exchange before. The drop in tokens was a response to rival exchange SushiSwap which forked the Uniswap code base and tried to lure users with a new token, SUSHI, in what is now called "vampire mining."
Each nominal user was given 400 UNI tokens equal to 60% of the billion UNI coined. Each airdrop is now worth around $ 6.000. SUSHI has also grown 177% in the past 30 days, according to Messari.
All-round growth
In addition to the token price, Uniswap's investors, consultants and team members are also growing rapidly after the initial token allocation, although a four-year vesting program remains in place.
According to a Uniswap post, 21% of the tokens, or 212.660.000 UNI (at press time: $ 3,2 billion), have been earmarked for current and future team members. An additional 18% or 180.440.000 UNI ($ 2,7 billion) was set aside for investors plus 0,69% or 6.900.000 UNI ($ 103,5 million) for consultants. Uniswap, whose core team is based in Brooklyn, NY, raised $ 11 million in a Series A backed by Andreeson Horowitz, Paradigm, Union Square Ventures and VersionOne.
