Uniswap Launches Unichain as Layer 2 Solution for Ethereum

On February 11, Uniswap announced the launch of Unichain, the Ethereum Layer 2 solution, marking its entry into the already crowded L2 market.

The platform explained that users can now trade, bridge, and provide liquidity directly via the Uniswap web app and the latest version of its wallet.

Unichain features performance improvements, such as block times as low as one second and a response time of 250 milliseconds.

Its testnet, which launched in October, has seen over 88 million test transactions and 12 million test smart contracts.

Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap Labs, commented:

Unichain is built differently. We want to make DeFi faster, cheaper, and more decentralized, which is why we launched it decentralized from day one.

The “Superchain” platform, which is based on “Optimism”, offers key features such as swapping, lending and borrowing, launching digital tokens, supporting the ERC-7683 standard for cross-chain trading, and provides 95% lower gas fees compared to Ethereum and native integration with Circle’s USDC, in addition to an open fault proof mechanism that allows anyone to challenge transactions.

“Unichain” faces fierce competition in the layer 2 projects market, as the total value of this ecosystem is $ 42.3 billion according to “L2beat”.

“Arbitrum One” accounts for 38% of the market value at $ 13.7 billion, followed by “Base” with a 32% share worth $ 11.4 billion, then “OP Mainnet” with a 14% share and $ 5 billion.

However, the support of “Uniswap”, the largest decentralized exchange in the world, gives “Unichain” a strong chance to compete.

There was no positive reaction from UNI, which fell 6% to $9 at the time of writing, after losing 30% of its value last month, affected by a general decline in the cryptocurrency market linked to DeFi, remaining down about 80% from its highs in May 2021.

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