A New Uniswap Feature Aims to Eliminate DeFi Pain Points

Uniswap, the world's largest decentralized crypto exchange, unveiled a new blockchain protocol "UniswapX" for trading across automated market makers (AMMs) and other liquidity sources.

Details of the project were shared with CoinDesk in a press release, and Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams was due to make the announcement on-stage Monday at the EthCC conference in Paris.

Uniswap, the world's largest decentralized exchange (DEX) according to the website DefiLlama with about $3.8 billion of collateral or "total value locked," says that UniswapX addresses many of the pain points of on-chain trading and self-custody swapping. Features include "better prices" by aggregating liquidity sources, according to the press release, along with gas-free swapping, protection against maximal extractable value, or MEV, and no cost for failed transactions.

In the coming months, UniswapX will expand to gas-free cross-chain swaps, according to the company.

Uniswap is launching UniswapX in "opt-in beta" on the Uniswap Labs interface for the main Ethereum network, with plans to expand to other chains and the Uniswap wallet "in the near future." The company didn't say when a final version would be available.

For swappers, the liquidity pools are a lifeline in executing trades on DEXs, but these pools can sometimes dry up. UniswapX looks to solve this problem by engaging with third-party fillers that fill swaps directly or route users to appropriate AMM pools. These third-party fillers would have to compete with Uniswap itself, thus driving down prices for traders.

Fillers will also cover the gas fees on behalf of swappers, eliminating the need for swappers to own a blockchain's native network token, such as ETH or MATIC, to participate in trading, and removing any financial responsibility for unsuccessful transactions.

According to Uniswap, fillers incorporate gas fees into overall swap prices, but they have the option to reduce transaction costs by aggregating multiple orders, thereby fostering a competitive environment for achieving the most favorable price.

Lastly, Uniswap promises that UniswapX will help thwart MEV – a scheme that’s usually loathed by swappers, wherein network operators capitalize on their ability to preview queued transactions.

UniswapX addresses this issue by redirecting MEV, which would otherwise be seized by arbitrage transactions and sandwich attacks by encouraging fillers to use private transaction relays – keeping things out of sight of MEV bots.