Unichain Flips Ethereum in Uniswap v4 Volume—Here’s How the Underdog Pulled It Off

Move over, Ethereum—Unichain just grabbed the Uniswap v4 volume crown. The upstart chain processed more swaps than the OG smart contract platform this week, marking a seismic shift in DEX dominance.

Lower fees, faster settlements? Check. But let’s be real—half the volume probably came from yield farmers chasing that 0.0001% APY difference.

This isn’t just a blip. With v4’s custom pool architectures, chains like Unichain are eating Ethereum’s lunch where it hurts: in the liquidity trenches. The ’flippening’ might start here—in the unglamorous world of swap fees.

Unichain, the native Layer 2 blockchain for Uniswap, has now surpassed ethereum in transaction volume on Uniswap v4 and is handling most of the user activity on the DEX’s latest protocol upgrade.

@unichain overtakes @ethereum in @Uniswap v4 transaction volume#Unichain, Uniswap’s native LAYER 2 blockchain, has become the leading network for #Uniswap $UNI v4 transactions, surpassing #Ethereum $ETH with a reported 75% market share, according to Dune Analytics. The… pic.twitter.com/ur3RByplU3

A 75% Market Share Milestone

Unichain, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard, reflects approximately 75% of Uniswap v4 transaction volume, and Ethereum’s share drops under 20%. This fast success can be mostly explained by ecosystem-oriented improvements and growth incentives that Layer 2 began to adopt since mid-April 2025.

Regardless of Uniswap v3 and Ethereum’s supremacy in larger trading volumes, the improvements of v4 appear to push developers and projects toward Layer 2 technology.

Why Unichain Is Winning v4

Several crucial improvements accompanied the January 2025 release of Uniswap v4: gas savings, direct ETH support, dynamic fees, and custom code execution. These aspects enable v4 to be more flexible for developers, a fact that Unichain took advantage of by focusing its efforts on the support of this version.

Central to its success, Unichain does not work on Uniswap v3 and, therefore, can direct the entire liquidity and incentives to Uniswap v4.

The Power of Incentives and Scalability

One of the main drivers of Unichain’s development is its $45 million liquidity incentive, with which it has significantly boosted both the active address count and total value locked (TVL) on the platform. According to data from DeFiLlama, it has become the third-largest Layer 2 rollup with $800 million in total value locked.

In addition, due to the unique design of the system, it can perform better in terms of speed and efficiency. Based on the Optimism Superchain, Unichain has up to 95% fewer transaction costs compared to Layer 1 Ethereum, has one-second block intervals, and is about to use ms sub-blocks, perhaps reaching quasi-immediate finality.

What It Means for DeFi

Adoption of Uniswap v4 on Unichain at this speed may rewrite the paradigm of how decentralized exchanges grow. Should Uniswap v4 become the standard architecture for sophisticated DeFi cases, Unichain is likely to experience significant gains due to heightened migration.

This development illustrates how Layer 2 ecosystems are emerging as significant forces in the DeFi space, functioning as standalone advanced settings that can compete with Ethereum in both utility and client satisfaction.

The scalability upgrades, which Ethereum has done, together with Unichain’s momentum, suggest that the future of DeFi’s landscape might be taken over by the protocol-native Layer 2 solutions.