Will UNI be the last DeFi carnival of the year?

Chain catcher (ID: iqklbs)

, Author: Gong Quanyu, reproduced by Odaily with authorization.

A week or two ago, Sushiswap competed for a large amount of liquidity and trading volume from Uniswap through a series of measures. The total locked value of the latter dropped from 1.72 billion US dollars to 518 million US dollars, but Uniswap's creative token distribution mechanism quickly reversed this situation. situation, and pushed DeFi’s on-chain lock-up value to break through $9 billion again.

A more thought-provoking question than Uniswap itself is, with the listing of all mainstream DeFi project tokens and the lack of new high-quality project assets, will this round of carnival in the DeFi market come to an end? Is the UNI liquidity mining activity the last DeFi carnival this year?

After several weeks of pursuit by Sushiswap, the veteran DEX project Uniswap finally used its killer trick on September 17-officially released its protocol token UNI and the corresponding liquidity mining mechanism, and with its unique design, it has attracted attention in the entire DeFi market. There was a great momentum.

Compared with other projects that launched liquidity mining, although Uniswap did not adopt the popular mechanism of no pre-mining and no private placement, its innovation lies in that it not only formulated a mining plan for future participants, but also formulated a mining plan for the past. The token distribution plan for users who provide liquidity for Uniswap. Nearly 50,000 users who have participated in Uniswap smart contract transactions in the past few years can get 400 UNI, which is equivalent to about 2,000 US dollars based on the market price tonight.

At a time when the prices of most DeFi projects have fallen sharply, causing heavy losses to investors, Uniswap’s almost “sprinkling of money” behavior has won the unanimous appreciation and excitement of almost all industry users, and is known as one of the most “conscience” projects . At the same time, this move undoubtedly demonstrates the ambition and meticulousness of Uniswap as a veteran DeFi project.

Most DeFi projects launch liquidity mining for future participants, incentivizing more participants through huge benefits, in order to build user stickiness and obtain more beautiful data, but from the actual situation, many DeFi projects The main participants are arbitrageurs based on high rewards, and the actual demand for loans and transactions is quite limited. If the mining plan with high rewards ends, its user retention and usage stickiness will not be optimistic.

Uniswap’s approach is obviously more pragmatic. While trying to motivate more participants through high rewards, it also rewards users who used it based on actual usage needs rather than seeking arbitrage on a large scale in the past, regardless of the actual contribution. It has reversed the game mechanism of "the rich get richer" in the past, and is more friendly to the majority of ordinary participants. This approach has an extremely significant effect on stabilizing its actual user base and enhancing its industry reputation. It can be called a textbook-style token distribution The mechanism is bound to have a profound impact on the industry.

At the same time, Uniswap's move has also been highly recognized by many parties in the industry. Kane Warwick, founder of the well-known DeFi project Synthetix, called this move a "galactic brain move" and added that it will be "the best token we have ever seen." Token distribution method". A series of historical data and records were also born from it: the website traffic of the famous Ethereum browser Etherscan reached the highest peak since its launch, the famous exchange Coinbase launched its trading pairs for the first time on the first day of a token issuance, the single-day trading volume and procedures of Ethereum The total amount of fees hit a record high...

Prior to this, due to Sushiswap's liquidity mining and migration activities, the total locked value (TVL) of Uniswap during the period from September 7 to 9 dropped from $1.72 billion to $518 million, and a large amount of liquidity and trading volume was blocked. Sushiswap competed, and the leading position of DEX was greatly threatened. With this token issuance activity, Uniswap quickly reversed the market pattern, and the total lock-up value exceeded 1.3 billion US dollars on September 18, and the lock-up value on the DeFi chain also exceeded 9 billion US dollars again, while Sushiswap’s lock-up volume fell. to $530 million.

It is foreseeable that Uniswap's liquidity mining activities will continue to gain the support of a large number of users, and even promote its lock-up volume to rank first among DeFi projects. At the same time, the DEX market structure will be further clarified.

However, outside of the DEX market, Uniswap’s currency issuance has a higher industry significance. Since then, the tokens of almost all major projects in the DeFi market have been officially issued. At the same time, the leading projects in various DeFi segments have formed a relatively stable situation after months of market competition. Few reliable new projects have emerged and launched Powerful challenge.

In July and August, when DeFi was at its climax, new projects were launched almost every few days and caused periodic market turmoil. These new assets were one of the most important forces driving the rise of the entire DeFi market. The power has almost disappeared, and it is even further eroding the public's confidence in the DeFi market.

Although second- and third-tier public chains such as Tron, EOS, Bytom, and NEO are all trying to develop the DeFi market and push new projects, judging from market reactions and currency price trends, almost none of them can stabilize and form market competitiveness , mostly just to give community users an explanation.

Now Uniswap, as a veteran DeFi project, can barely take over and stabilize the market, maintaining users' confidence in participating in DeFi mining, but where is the next Uniswap-style project? If there is no project to take over, how will the market change? These are questions that all DeFi users need to think about.