Is UNI Token Useless?

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Good Morning. SBF trial saga continues with Nishad currently testifying. Meanwhile, Uniswap decided to implement a 0.15% swap fee on select pairs on its main website UI.

Unsurprisingly, many criticized the move given that it shows a clear conflict of interest between the Uniswap equity shareholders and the UNI token holders.

Same old problem.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: UNI 0.15% Fee 💰

• Case Study: Crypto data landscape 📊

• Governance & Features: Scroll mainnet 📜

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WHAT MATTERS

Uniswap Charges 0.15% UI Swap Fee

State of play: Uniswap introduced a 0.15% UI swap fee on major stable pairs, covering 85% of its trading volume. The change, effective Tuesday, was announced by founder Hayden Adams on Monday.

• The 0.15% fee will impact ETH, USDC, WETH, USDT, DAI, WBTC, agEUR, GUSD, LUSD, EUROC, and XSGD.

• These tokens are subject to fees only when traded through Uniswap Labs interfaces on mainnet and supported L2s.

• Fees are only collected on swaps where both input and output tokens are subject to fees.

• Swaps from one stablecoin to another stablecoin are excluded.

• Wraps between ETH and WETH are excluded from this fee.

On the other hand, dYdX has officially updated its charter to become a Public Benefit Corporation and said that It will not operate or generate trading fee revenue from dYdX v4 and act for the public benefit.

Why it matters: The Block Research projects that with Uniswap's present volumes, the updated token fee will produce approximately $1M daily.

• The updated fee comes after a 0.3% liquidity pool charge and a protocol fee that is anticipated to increase.

• The affected pairs had about $580M in daily trading volume, generating around $870K in swap fees.

• After the initial excitement, the weekly 0.15% swap fee volume is predicted to be around $800K, leading to ~$42M in annual revenue.

For builders and investors: The newly implemented fee will go directly into the equity holders’ pocket.

• This move has raised questions among UNI token holders, as the token's promised fee switch has not yet been activated.

CASE STUDY

Mapping The Data Landscape

Credit to SAURABH and Decentralised.co for the original piece.

State of play: Data in the realm of Web3, which leaves public trails like NFT trades, requires context to extract value. While Each audience has unique data needs and platforms have emerged to cater to these distinct requirements.

• Some services structure raw blockchain data into usable formats, while other platforms specialize in offering specific insights.

• The success of these data services is determined by their ability to accurately and insightfully present the data.

• Customer segmentations matter. The approach to having a B2B institutional customer for crypto data vs retail customer requires different team backgrounds.

What’s next: There is a vast untapped potential in the data landscape, akin to the revolution brought about by Google Maps in Web2.

Our take: Crypto data is still messy, and there’s a multi-billion dollar opportunity for startups to generate value while the incumbents are still only focusing on TradFi data.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses 👇

INSIGHTS

TRON Stablecoin Activities

Peter Johnson and Sai Nimmagadda released a paper titled “The Relentless Rise of Stablecoin.” Here are the key takeaways from the paper on stablecoin activity:

• In 2022, stablecoins settled over $11T on-chain, outpacing PayPal ($1.4T), nearing Visa ($11.6T), and reaching 14% of ACH volume and over 1% of Fedwire.

• Stablecoin use isn't mainly tied to crypto exchange trading volumes, hinting at non-speculative activities.

• Under a third of stablecoins are on exchanges; most are in external accounts (not exchanges or smart contracts).

• Tron and BSC handle most stablecoin activity YTD with 77% of active addresses, 75% of transactions, and 41% of volumes combined.

• Despite only contributing to 6% of active wallets and 3% of transactions, Ethereum holds 55% of stablecoin supply and settles nearly 50% of the weekly stablecoin dollar volume.

Why it matters: Stablecoin, or to its extension, cryptodollar, is the new form of digital eurodollar. It’s one use case of crypto that has found its place.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Scroll Announced zkEVM Mainnet Launch

Scroll launches its zkEVM on mainnet. Scroll is an L2 scaling solution for Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge rollups (zkEVMs) to process transactions off-chain and then send the transaction data back to the main chain.

• Scolls’s bridge deployment started on Oct. 8, as per Etherscan.

• Over 750 ETH ($1.2M) was bridged with 1,500 transactions and about 1,000 unique users, per Dune Analytics.

• Scroll aims to help developers create applications for widespread web3 adoption.

Why it matters: Scroll is another high-profile L2 launch. Its traction and momentum can paint a picture on the state of the crypto markets.

Other notable feature updates:

• Frax Finance launches sFRAX.

• IPOR launches V2.

• Mars v2 goes live on Osmosis.

• Mountain USDM Pool goes live.

• esRDNT goes live on Arbitrum.

• zkSync txBridge goes live.

• Metamask partners with Stripe.

• hyUSD goes live on Base.

• Fuel Testnet Bridge goes live.

QUICK BITES

• EU agrees on new crypto tax data sharing rules.

• Uniswap starts charging a 0.15% UI fee on select swaps.

• Sui Foundation calls report on supply manipulation materially false.

• Reddit sunsets its crypto-based community points.

• Fantom employee loses $7M in exploit.

• Larry Fink says Bitcoin rumor rally shows ‘pent-up interest in crypto.'

• Judge orders Genesis to respond in 5 days to the subpoena.

• Huobi, KuCoin added to UK Watchdog’s Warning List.

• FTX plans to return 90% of customer funds, but there's a catch.

• Binance to temporarily stop accepting new UK users.

• Federal Reserve Governor throws cold water on future CBDC.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• 21Shares’ read on the state of tokenization, $10T opportunity.

• Kayla Phillips’ read on the crypto payments landscape.

• Molly White’s read on the FTX trial, defrauding lenders.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.