Key Highlights
- UNI surged over 12% to $5.73, taking its weekly gain to 29.82% and market cap to about $3.57 billion.
- Robinhood Chain’s DEX volume hit $1.56 billion, with Uniswap handling 76% of the total, driving strong activity for the protocol.
- UNI burn activity is gaining attention, with Uniswap burning over $300,000 worth of UNI in 10 days and total burns nearing $160 million.
Uniswap’s UNI price surged over 12% on September 1 as strong trading activity on Robinhood Chain pushed the token higher despite a mixed broader crypto market.
According to data from CoinMarketCap as of (2:44 PM UTC), the token is trading for $5.73 after climbing from a daily low around $5.08.
This surge added to its weekly gain which is now up 29.82%, pushing its market capitalization to around $3.57 billion. At the same time, the 24-hour trading volume also climbed by 171.3% to around $708.93 million, showing strong market activity during the move.
Meanwhile, during this period, Bitcoin fell 0.6% to around $78,031, while Ethereum gained 0.44% to about $2,451. XRP also declined 0.7% near $1.38, leaving UNI as one of the stronger performers among major crypto assets during the session.
What is pulling the price up?
The main driver behind the rally was Robinhood Chain’s record decentralized exchange activity. According to data from DefiLlama, the chain recorded approximately $1.56 billion in daily DEX volume, and Uniswap handled 76% of that amount.
In simple terms, a DEX allows people to trade digital assets without using a traditional centralized exchange. So, the more trading that takes place through Uniswap, the more activity the protocol records. That has now become important for UNI because higher activity can also lead to higher fees and more UNI being bought and removed from circulation.
Uniswap handles most DEX volume
The surge in trading activity has also increased attention on Uniswap’s protocol fees and UNI burn mechanism. On August 30, DEX activity on the network reached a record level, while daily transactions climbed to 5.52 million.
Uniswap v4 accounted for $432 million of the activity, while v3 added another $357 million. According to data shared by Token Terminal, the protocol processed about $1.5 billion in stock token trading volume in roughly six weeks.
“Uniswap on Robinhood Chain has processed ~$1.5B in stock token trading volume in roughly six weeks,” Token Terminal said. The data provider added that real-world assets can create new business for DeFi venues, asset issuers and blockchains.
Tokenized Stocks Add More Activity
For Uniswap, the growing activity has also pushed up fees. Data from DefiLlama also show that Uniswap v4 recorded 25 million in weekly fees, with Robinhood Chain accounting for 21 million. Ether contributed 1.5 million, while Base added 1.3 million during the same period.
The growth has also reached the real-world asset market. More than 60% of weekly real-world asset DEX volume passed through Uniswap, up from 40% previously.
Higher fees support UNI burns
Another part of the story is UNI’s burn system. In July, governance was enabled on Robinhood Chain. Under the system, fees are placed into TokenJar contracts before searchers use them to buy UNI. The purchased tokens are then permanently removed from circulation.
Uniswap burned more than $300,000 worth of UNI over 10 days, taking total burns close to $160 million, according to the figures cited in the report. The activity has brought more attention to how growing trading volume could affect UNI’s supply.
Also Read: Flare FIRE Revenue Nearly Doubles in Two Weeks as FLR Staking Jumps 82%
