UNI Token Soars 12% As Uniswap Announces the Launch of Unichain, a New Layer 2 for DeFi

Key Takeaways:

• UNI's price has risen by 23% in the past week and 20% in the last 30 days.
• Unichain aims to expedite Ethereum's scaling roadmap and offers significantly cheaper transactions than Ethereum Layer 1.
• The L2 network is designed to handle up to 200-250 millisecond sub-block times.

The Uniswap governance token, UNI, took a great leap today, increasing by around 12% after the leading decentralized crypto exchange platform revealed Unichain, a new layer two DeFi blockchain built on the Optimism Superchain.

The price of UNI has risen by 23% in the past week and 20% in the last 30 days. Over the previous 24 hours alone, the trading volume of Uniswap (UNI) has surged by 411% to $706.77 million. UNI currently holds the 21st position, with a market capitalization of $4.8 billion.

This remarkable performance came after Uniswap Labs announced the launch of their new specialized layer-2 blockchain network, Unichain.

Introducing @unichain — a new L2 designed for DeFi ✨

Fast blocks (250ms), cross-chain interoperability, and a decentralized validator network

Built to be the home for liquidity across chains pic.twitter.com/lqfJh6Ltio

— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) October 10, 2024

The DeFi leader claimed that the newly introduced blockchain will expedite Ethereum's scaling roadmap, offering up to 95% cheaper transactions than Ethereum layer 1. It is also designed to handle 200-250 millisecond sub-block times as the platform progresses, although it currently launches with 1-second block times.

Related: Uniswap review: Is it a good DEX?

Unichain Testnet Launched, Mainnet Expected Later this Year

The Unichain Testnet was launched on October 10, while the mainnet is expected to be released later this year, as announced by the Uniswap Labs team to their 1.3 million X followers.

They stated that introducing this new layer 2 network is a solution to the issues confronting decentralized finance on the Ethereum network despite the significant advancements made by the Uniswap Protocol and other DeFi protocols in recent years.

Uniswap proudly announced that over the past six years, it has facilitated $2.4 trillion in volume, expanded to serve millions of users, and executed nearly half a billion trades.

Unichain offers advantages such as low costs that promote decentralization, rapid and almost instant transactions, and seamless multi-chain swapping, among others.

“Unichain will be so fast; transactions will feel instant,” Uniswap Labs boasts, “This type of speed isn't just great for UX, it also improves market efficiency and lowers value lost to MEV.”

Unichain's Technical Architecture and Interoperability

These features were created in partnership with Flashbots and Optimism, and the technical architecture behind them was also a collaborative effort.

The Defi platform is teaming up with OP Labs to enable native interoperability, allowing cross-chain message passing among Superchain L2s within the Optimism Superchain.

For context, the Superchain comprises a network of chains (OP Stack Chains) built on Optimism's open-source standard codebase, the OP Stack.

Welcome @unichain to the Superchain!@unichain is a DeFi-native Ethereum L2, purposefully built by @uniswap.

Together, we’ll shape the future of the Superchain and scale Ethereum. pic.twitter.com/cdYBC3w1Dl

— Optimism (@Optimism) October 10, 2024

To improve interoperability between chains outside the Superchain, the Uniswap Labs team is working on initiatives such as ERC-7683 to make it seamless for users regardless of the blockchains they are using.

Related: TRON Outperforms All Blockchains with $5.33 Million Gain, Thanks to SunPump Rollout

Furthermore, the recently released Unichain whitepaper discussed how the L2 network addresses risks associated with single-sequencer architectures by introducing the Unichain Validation Network (UVN), a decentralized network of node operators that independently validate the latest blockchain state.

This UVN is an extensible platform initially focusing on verifying blocks for faster finality. It differs from rollups by avoiding the sequencer's impact on the blockchain's liveness, MEV dynamics, and finalization while leveraging the base blockchain's robust security.

Uniswap (UNI) Token Market Response

The launch of Unichain has generated significant excitement, as reflected in the price of UNI, the governance crypto token of the Uniswap ecosystem. On October 10, the price of UNI rose from $7.263 to $8.41 before retracing to $8.12 at the time of writing.