Uniswap Launches Ethereum Layer-2 Unichain to Public 

On Feb. 11, Uniswap introduced the launch of Unichain, its Ethereum layer-2 resolution, marking its first foray into the crowded L2 ecosystem.

“You’ll be able to swap, bridge, and supply liquidity on Unichain immediately from the Uniswap net app and within the newest model of the pockets,” the platform defined.

Unichain boasts quite a lot of efficiency enhancements together with one-second block instances with a goal of 250 milliseconds. It additionally acknowledged that customers and builders have processed over 88 million take a look at transactions and 12 million take a look at sensible contracts on Unichain’s testnet, which was deployed in October.

The pink chain has arrived

You’ll be able to swap, bridge, and supply liquidity on @Unichain immediately from the Uniswap net app and within the newest model of the pockets

Simply search for the ✨ pic.twitter.com/3G4F3kQSr4

— Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap) February 11, 2025

Uniswap Enters Crowded Market

“Unichain is constructed otherwise,” mentioned Hayden Adams, Founder and CEO of Uniswap Labs. “We’re right here to make DeFi sooner, cheaper, and extra decentralized, which is why we launched Unichain to be permissionless from day one,” he added.

The brand new layer-2 platform provides a number of core functionalities, together with swapping and liquidity provision, token launching capabilities, lending and borrowing companies, and cross-chain buying and selling by way of the ERC-7683 normal.

The platform, constructed on the Optimism Superchain, additionally has no interface charges for swaps through the preliminary months, supplies native USDC integration by way of Circle, has permissionless fault proofs permitting anybody to problem transactions, and boasts 95% cheaper gasoline charges in comparison with Ethereum.

Unichain has emphasised decentralization from launch, with plans to introduce a Validation Community later this 12 months to permit public block verification.

“As the primary L2 to launch as a Stage 1 rollup, which means Unichain is dedicated to decentralization on day one.”

The platform goals to resolve conventional blockchain points like excessive gasoline charges, sluggish transactions, and complex cross-chain operations whereas sustaining Ethereum’s core ideas of being open, permissionless, and decentralized.

Nonetheless, it has entered a really crowded layer-2 space dominated by a handful of gamers. In response to L2beat, the L2 ecosystem presently has a complete worth locked of round $42.3 billion.

Arbitrum One has the biggest market share of rollup-based TVL with $13.7 billion equating to 38% whereas Base is the second largest L2 with $11.4 billion giving it a 32% share. OP Mainnet is third with a 14% share and $5 billion TVL.

L2beat lists round 60 rollup-based layer-2 networks, which Unichain will compete with, however it’s backed by the world’s largest DEX, which is able to go a great distance.

Unichain mainnet is reside ✨

✸ Quick with low charges
✸ Constructed for cross-chain liquidity
✸ Prioritizes decentralization from day one

Now you can deploy DeFi apps, launch tokens, swap, present liquidity, and extra pic.twitter.com/MqJQwum4Bf

— Unichain (@unichain) February 11, 2025

UNI Worth Replace

There was no response from Uniswap’s native token, which fell 6% from an intraday excessive of $10 to $9.40 on the time of writing.

The altcoin has been hammered over the previous month, dumping 30%, which is in step with a broader market decline for DeFi-related belongings. UNI stays down virtually 80% from its Could 2021 all-time excessive of slightly below $45.