Uniswap, DyDx, and Lido had great technology and their mindshare caused them to establish themselves as premier DeFi protocols. Uniswap generated a memorable brand by focusing on design simplicity and user experience. dYdX listened to its customers from the beginning and was not afraid to pivot from a dApp to its own L2 and finally migrate to a sovereign chain. Lido's bias for action, exemplified by its use of permissioned validator sets to start, allowed it to ship quickly and integrate rapidly with various other protocols.

Uniswap plans to go through with its vote to implement fee collection and distribution to UNI token holders on May 31. This comes after Uniswap Labs was served a Wells Notice by the SEC for operating as an unlicensed brokerage.

The US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has added Aptos founder Mo Shaikh to its Digital Assets Subcommittee. The subcommittee offers advice on regulating digital assets and comprises members from crypto-familiar companies like Blackrock, Uniswap, and Polygon.

Uniswap's Permit2 is a novel way to improve UX for ERC-20 token transfers. Instead of approving a transfer to an individual smart contract, users grant a central Permit2 contract transfer authority and then perform a signature-based approval to transfer to specific contracts.

A recent analysis of top trading pairs on Uniswap (Ethereum and Base) and Raydium (Solana) revealed that Solana has a significantly higher volume per dollar of TVL compared to Ethereum, with Base close behind.

Raydium has half the daily volumes of Uniswap, but higher fees and distribution to RAY holders mean the token accrues more real yield than UNI. RAY's market capitalization is 10% of UNI, giving a market cap to protocol fees ratio of 1.4x versus UNI at 6.7x. This mispricing is likely due to skepticism about Solana memecoin and bot trading, RAY's aggressive issuance schedule, and Uniswap's better brand positioning.

Uniswap's Arbitrum liquidity mining campaign successfully boosted liquidity, improved price execution, and increased volume market share by deploying 1.8M ARB tokens (~$1.7M USD).

Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX), has reported a remarkable revenue of approximately $52.75 million from fees between April 1 and September 30, 2024. This surge in earnings follows a strategic decision by Uniswap Labs to increase the user-interface swap fee from 0.1% to 0.25% for most trading pairs, excluding stablecoin pairs and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH). This fee adjustment, implemented in April, has significantly contributed to the exchange's financial performance, as it applies to users swapping directly through the Uniswap website, while those using aggregators are exempt. The fee increase has not been without controversy. Critics, including Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel for Delphi Labs, have raised concerns that the new fee structure may not benefit the UNI token, which is the native token of the exchange. Shapiro argues that this could create a conflict of interest between shareholders and tokenholders, as the company appears to prioritize its equity over the value of the token. Despite these criticisms, the financial results indicate a positive trend, with monthly fee revenues climbing from $4 million in March to a peak of $11.53 million in May, before settling at $7.31 million in September. Uniswap continues to dominate the DEX market, achieving a total trading volume of $8.1 billion over the past week, far surpassing its closest competitor, PancakeSwap, which recorded $5.9 billion in volume. This strong performance suggests that the fee increase has not adversely affected Uniswap's market position. In addition to its financial maneuvers, Uniswap has been navigating legal challenges, particularly from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In April, the company received a Wells Notice, signaling potential legal action from the SEC. Uniswap has publicly stated its readiness to contest any regulatory actions and has urged the SEC to reconsider its proposals for regulating the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. The increased revenue from fees may provide the necessary resources to address these legal challenges as the company seeks to maintain its leadership in the rapidly evolving DeFi landscape.