- Uniswap usage has ballooned in the last week, with volume up almost 5x to half a billion dollars
- Ethereum fees have rocketed too, with reports of up to $80 needed for a fast transaction
- Ethereum earned over $500,000 in just one hour yesterday
Ethereum miners earned an incredible $500,000 in one hour yesterday as the Uniswap exchange hit over half a billion dollars in 24-hour volume. Crypto Twitter was agog at the fees being demanded of simple transactions as the Ethereum network became more and more congested by the surge in Uniswap usage and the continued growth of DeFi farming, with some users reporting fees of up to $80 being required to execute trades.
Uniswap Enjoys 5x Volume in Four Days
Ethereum’s surging gas fees are no surprise when you take into account Uniswap’s incredible performance in recent days. The exchange has of course seen spikes in usage during its inexorable rise in recent months, but its volume and liquidity have taken on a life of their own in the past week.
Since August 27 liquidity on the platform has shot up from $300 million to hit $1.76 billion, while the 24 hour volume has gone from $141 million on August 27 to $689 million this week:
This incredible rise in usage of Uniswap explains the increase in Ethereum gas prices at a trice, with transactions firmly rooted in the mid-high double figures:
$80 for one eth transaction on Uniswap
Holy shit
— Spyro (long only) (@ThePicapico) September 1, 2020
Some preferred to root the cost to use Uniswap in reality:
$24.63 is the average hourly wage in the US.
$54 is the cost of an average transaction on Uniswap.
Average American has to only work 2.2 hours to send 1 transaction on Uniswap ✅
— Mac ❄️🐺 (@MacnBTC) September 1, 2020
Nasty Surprises Add Fees to Trading Process
Those new to Uniswap will likely have endured something of a shock when it comes to the cost of using the exchange. Not only are there costs associated with the act of buying and selling tokens, there is also an ‘approval’ cost when holders wish to sell a newly bought token for the first time.
This approval cost is the same as any Ethereum-based transaction, meaning that a double digit fee is required as a kind of entry to the selling floor.
