Uniswap surges 17% as BTC reclaims $100k, Unichain growth accelerates

Uniswap price surged sharply as the crypto market erupted on May 8, with the decentralized exchange’s native token spiking 17% to hit its highest level in two weeks.

With cryptocurrencies in upward mode as Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed the $100,000 mark, Uniswap (UNI) soared above $5.50. The gains had Uniswap in vertical mode amid a spik in daily volume, with the altcoin seeing more than $214 million traded in the past 24 hours to represent a 70% increase.

Bitcoin’s rally to $100,000 could provide new momentum. However, analysts at market intelligence platform Santiment caution that it could be a “double-edged sword.”

“On one hand, retail FOMO can add a bit of extra fuel to this rally as major media outlets spam Bitcoin’s 3-month milestone and bring in many new entries to the space. On the other hand, we typically see rallies put on the brakes when there is an overwhelming amount of calls related to ‘higher’ or ‘above’ (in relation to crypto) like we’re seeing now,” Santiment posted on X.

Although UNI gains align with the broader market’s uptick catalyzing bullish sentiment, tailwinds include the recent Ethereum Pectra upgrade. 

Pectra, a major update for Ethereum and the first since Dencun in March 2024, introduces several important features for the network. The 11 included improvement proposals enhance user experience via smart accounts and delegation, upgrade staking mechanics, and improve layer 2 integration.

Unichain’s rapid rise as a go-to platform for the Uniswap community also supports the bullish case. The Uniswap team announced on May 7 that Pectra’s activation ensures all 7,702 smart wallets on the network are now fully supported on the Uniswap web app.

Per DeFiLlama data, Unichain has become one of the top chains in the decentralized exchange ecosystem. Latest data shows the DEX’s volume of $1.99 billion over the past week. The weekly change of +14% outpaces that of Etthereum, Solana and Base among others in the same period.

In the past 24 hours, Unichain’s volume stands at over $354 million, accounting for most of the daily volume for Uniswap V4.

As well as Unichain’s growth in terms of user accounts and total transactions, the Uniswap platform itself is seeing a notable flip. The total value locked on Uniswap is around $4.27 billion.