Uniswap

Uniswap

 UNI

A DeFi giant, one of the largest representatives of DEX, a liquidity provider that runs on the Ethereum network. All of that is Uniswap, but let’s take it step by step. In this article we’ve put together everything you want to know about Uniswap and $UNI: what is Uniswap, what is UNI coin, what’s the link between Pancake Swap and Uniswap and how to buy $UNI with crypto at the best rate.

Uniswap Exchange Rate

UNI by TradingView

What is Uniswap?

Uniswap is the leading Decentralised Exchange (DEX) in the crypto sphere, operating as the main passage between CeFi (Centralized Finance) and DeFi (Decentralized Finance). DEXs are the easiest way to get funds into DeFi and into your favourite protocols.

Originally published in late 2018, it was in its first iteration (V1). Later in 2020 V2 was released with the introduction of V3 in May of 2021. Each iteration has brought with it more features and upgrades for its users as Decentralized Exchanges slowly catch up to centralized ones.

Uniswaps founder, Hayden Adams, has written an entire blog dedicated to Uniswap’s history and rise to fame. Being the first Decentralized Exchange it was the spearhead of the DeFi movement. His original release tweet garnered a mere 1,000 likes for what would become a decentralized exchange handling billions of dollars in volume.

Uniswap’s code has always been open-source, available on Github for anyone to use or criticize. This meant it wasn’t long before other big DEXs took off, such as PancakeSwap or Sushiswap.

Key features of the project

To fully understand Uniswap, we must understand how Decentralized Exchanges work. Because there is no centralized authority, its users trust the smart contracts with making all transactions happen instead of the people running the exchange, like it would be for a central exchange.

Complete decentralization means it is a permissionless exchange and cannot be censored. Anyone with a phone and an internet connection can access Uniswap and therefore access cryptocurrency and DeFi. These are the foundations of DeFi and the reason why they were created in the first place.

Some of the other features of the Uniswap are:

  • It works as an Automated Market Maker (AMM) – a protocol that eliminates the need of the third party in the exchange process and allows crypto market participants to proceed with a transaction excluding any intermediates.
  • Runs on the Ethereum Mainnet for ERC20 tokens
  • Has a native token – a UNI coin

What is UNI Coin?

UNI coin is an Ethereum based token (ERC20) that powers the UNI exchange. As the Uniswap exchange is not actively using its token, UNI token is used for governance purposes, allowing its holders to vote on upcoming proposals so the community always decides the direction of the project.

This is common practice for Decentralized Cryptocurrency projects, removing the need for a centralized authority to make the decisions.

Also, Uniswaps liquidity pools (pools of cryptocurrencies locked in smart contracts) provide investors to buy and hold UNI in return for future rewards coming from the use of the exchange.

Investors hope that as Decentralized Exchanges such as Uniswap grow in popularity their price will increase. Currently, UNI has a market cap of $6.4bn, with 689 million tokens in circulation. Such a large market cap ranks it #24 out of all cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Uniswap Ecosystem

Currently Uniswap’s V2 and V3 protocols are handling almost $2bn in volume every day! To put that into perspective Kucoin, one of the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges is currently handling around $1.5bn in daily volume.

Being decentralized by nature, Uniswap’s ecosystem is made up of more than 300 different dApps (Decentralized Applications). Some of these include Gelato, a smart contract automator providing Uniswap with limit orders; Dune Analytics, free community cryptocurrency analytics and major self-custodial wallets such as Metamask and Trustwallet.

Uniswap also has a grants program to help up and coming projects flourish within the Uniswap ecosystem.

PancakeSwap vs Uniswap

Released in 2020, PancakeSwap was inspired by Uniswap and, most believed, utilized a lot of Uniswap’s code in their development as it was completely open-source. The reason why PancakeSwap was able to flourish, having daily trading volume over $600 million was due to the blockchain its run on.

Uniswap runs on Ethereum, whilst PancakeSwap utilizes BSC (Binance Smart Chart). Binance Smart Chain boasts much lower transaction fees which reflects onto the PancakeSwap exchange. To fully understand the massive difference in fees you should try both exchanges for yourself.

The average fee on Ethereum is $15, whilst the average fee on BSC is $0.30.

So why would you still use Uniswap even if the transaction fees are much higher? Being the biggest decentralized exchange, Uniswap offers the largest amount of liquidity and incentives for its users to use and hold UNI tokens to gain rewards.

Decentralized exchanges are reliant on liquidity providers for their liquidity, meaning when you buy tokens from Uniswap, a real user is providing that liquidity to you from the certain pool you bought from. The liquidity pool fee is sent to liquidity providers as incentive to keep on providing liquidity.

UNI Exchange: how to buy UNI with BTC?

So you know all about the Uniswap, how do you go about buying their native token UNI? The answer is always simple – Swapzone.io!

Let’s cut the chase and see how to buy UNI coin by exchanging it for BTC on Swapzone:

  • Visit the Swapzone website.
  • Select the proper pair (BTC to UNI).
  • Enter the amount of BTC you want to convert to UNI, and the aggregator will locate the best exchange rates for you.
  • Click the ‘Exchange’ button to go to a trading platform. Enter the wallet address where you want to send the Uniswap crypto.
  • Send the BTC deposit to the generated BTC address.
  • Click on ‘Proceed with the Exchange’ and if you want, provide a review for the exchange platform you choose.
  • Just wait a few moments for the conversion to take place, and the UNI swap will be complete!

Frequently asked questions

What is the Uniswap exchange rate?

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An exchange rate is the rate at which one cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another through a certain crypto exchange provider. Cryptocurrency exchange rates on Swapzone reflect current prices of crypto assets and are updated every 30 seconds for you to keep track of any market changes and fluctuations to profit when buying the dip or going with the best exchange rate and the lowest exchange fees. All cryptocurrency exchange providers have their own rates, which depends on supply and demand, mining rewards, costs and so on. See what else might affect the rate in our article on prices.

There are two types of exchange rates aggregated by Swapzone – fixed rates and floating rates. To receive the exact amount of crypto that is displayed at the beginning of the exchange and shield yourself against the market's volatility, opt for fixed-rate offers. If you're ready to take a risk and receive less or more than the sum displayed, go with floating-rate offers but bear in mind that floating rates may drastically change any second. You can refresh your memory on how to get the best exchange rate here.

Where to find the lowest transaction fees?

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Crypto transaction fees may vary depending on the network (Ethereum transaction fees tend to spike during the congestion on the network), your chosen cryptocurrency, an instant exchange provider as well as its transaction processing speed and internal policy. These fees may be relatively low but it’s crucial to know they may be imposed in the first place.

If you want to exchange cryptocurrency with the lowest fees, beware of the offers with a grey-colored “Transaction fees are not included” label displayed under the exchange rate. To avoid having to pay an unexpected amount of fees during the exchange, opt for those that do not have that label. Read our articles to learn more about how to exchange cryptocurrency with the lowest fees and find out which assets have the lowest transaction fees.

What is average transaction time?

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Transactions usually take from 5 to 30 minutes to be processed, especially if you choose currencies with speedy networks. However, there are several factors that may affect and slow down the exchange process, i.e. transaction volume, blockchain capacity, network updates, cryptocurrency itself and the capacity or chosen exchange platforms.

The processing may take longer due to the large transaction volume, congestion of the network, blockchain overload and market overload, technical issues or system failures, lack of liquidity or network maintenance.

The transaction may be also stuck if you forget to add a required Extra ID, mistake networks or use the wrong wallet for a chosen crypto asset. If you worry that the exchange processing is taking too long, please, contact us at [email protected] or via our live chat on the landing page.

How to choose a cryptocurrency wallet to store Uniswap?

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To exchange, buy, sell or trade cryptocurrency and store your crypto keys safely and securely, you need a crypto wallet. Choosing the best cryptocurrency wallet is a question of preference and need. To learn more, read our guide on how to choose the best cryptocurrency wallet for your needs.

There are several types of wallets for different crypto assets and tasks. Software wallets, or hot storage wallets, are connected to the Internet and come in many forms: Web, Desktop, Mobile or Browser Extensions. If you want to build a large crypto portfolio, you might want to look at multi currency wallets like Exodus, MetaMask, TrustWallet, Atomic or Guarda. If a coin or a token of your choice isn’t available there, you can always opt for a single-currency wallet that is usually designed by the project that launched the asset.

If you take safety and security matters seriously, go for hardware wallets, or cold storage wallets, like Ledger or Trezor, or even paper wallets. We strongly recommend you to do your research before creating a wallet: read the reviews to see what the community thinks, learn about the fees a particular wallet imposes for performing transactions, check out supported currencies and networks and see its security policy.

What is the best cryptocurrency exchange for beginners?

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There are loads of different crypto exchange services, with new platforms emerging every month. Exchange providers differ by supported currencies, liquidity providers, fees, customer support, user interface, level of privacy and anonymity and customer support, which makes it hard for beginners to understand which one to choose. To learn more about what these exchanges offer and how you can assess them, read our guide on how to choose the best exchange platform.

To navigate them through the field full of services, we conduct research and thorough analysis of the market & list both prominent and promising exchange providers, keeping in touch with their teams 24/7. We give you all the necessary data on the offers they provide as well as their brief history, KYC/AML policies, reliability and advantages, while also indicating their downsides so that you don’t have to do that yourself.

What is Swapzone?

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Swapzone is an instant non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange aggregator that helps users make an informed choice when exchanging crypto assets. To make this possible, we gather the information on the exchange providers, select the parameters for comparison, aggregate and sort available deals & give an option to make a swap through providers' APIs in the same interface with a common user flow for every exchange. Still have doubts? Here's 9 reasons why you should use Swapzone to exchange crypto.

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