Traders are flocking to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in the wake of FTX’s sudden, catastrophic implosion.
One DEX, in particular, has risen overnight to become the world’s second-largest venue for trading Ethereum: Uniswap.
Uniswap inventor Hayden Adams shared the news on Twitter today, citing analysis by Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik.
DEX starting to replace CEX?
Total ETH/USD (or stables) volume:
Binance: ~$1.9b
Uniswap: ~$1.1b
Coinbase: ~$0.6b https://t.co/FQR2PcIQzX— hayden.eth 🦄 (@haydenzadams) November 14, 2022
DEXs let customers trade crypto while retaining full control over their funds, unlike centralized platforms, providing a greater level of protection against withdrawal freezes or network outages.
At the time of tweeting, Uniswap had hosted north of $1 billion in Ethereum trades in the last 24 hours, nearly double the volume of Coinbase, the second-largest centralized exchange (CEX) in the world by total trading volume.
The numbers have since fallen, although Uniswap continues to pip Coinbase, according to data from CoinGecko.
Currently, Coinbase accounts for $564,937,971 worth of Ethereum trades in the last 24 hours, while Uniswap accounts for $966.17 million.
Binance continues to be the clear leader in this category, accounting for over $1.7 billion across all its Ethereum trading pairs.
Uniswap, DEXs take center stage
It’s not just Ethereum trades that have spiked since FTX’s collapse.
All DEXs accounted for $31 billion of crypto trades over the last week, according to statistics by Dune. Of that number, Uniswap alone hosted a whopping volume of $20.3 billion over the same period.
The spike began last Tuesday when many exchanges posted an overnight doubling in trade volumes, including Curve, which went from $700 million to $1.3 billion. Uniswap trades more than tripled over the period.
That was the same day Binance announced it had signed a non-binding agreement to bail out FTX for an undisclosed amount.