Uniswap has launched Unichain, a Layer-2 network built on Optimism’s Superchain, aiming to improve transaction speeds and reduce gas fees for DeFi users.

Uniswap Launches Unichain to Scale DeFi

Uniswap has officially launched Unichain, a Layer-2 blockchain designed to improve transaction speed and cross-chain liquidity. The launch follows months of testing during which the network recorded over 95 million transactions and 14.7 million smart contracts deployed.

Addressing Ethereum's Limitations

The launch of Unichain marks a significant step for Uniswap's decentralized exchange ecosystem, which has faced increasing pressure to address Ethereum's network congestion and high gas fees. Unichain, built on Optimism's Superchain, aims to reduce costs and enhance scalability while maintaining a decentralized framework. According to Uniswap Labs founder and CEO Hayden Adams, Unichain is committed to decentralization. > "We're here to make DeFi faster, cheaper, more decentralized, which is why we launched Unichain to be permissionless from day one."

The Layer-2 network aims to provide an efficient alternative for DeFi developers and traders by offering one-second block times and a 95% reduction in gas fees compared to Ethereum's mainnet. Protocols including Circle, Coinbase, Lido, and Morpho have already begun building on Unichain, signaling early adoption within the industry.

Unichain vs. Arbitrum: A Comparative Analysis

Both Unichain and Arbitrum aim to reduce liquidity fragmentation and enhance cross-chain compatibility. While Unichain's focus on ERC-7683 standards offers a unique approach to simplifying cross-chain transactions, Arbitrum's dominance in bridge inflows highlights its ability to attract liquidity at scale. Unichain's validation network introduces a decentralized layer for block verification using UNI staking, a feature not commonly seen in other Layer 2 solutions. In contrast, Arbitrum relies on its robust architecture and developer-friendly tools to maintain decentralization.

While Unichain has attracted over 100 projects with a TVL of $780.93M, Arbitrum's $1.9 billion in net inflows via cross-chain bridges demonstrates its market dominance.

Technical Innovations and Future Roadmap

Unichain delivers performance with 1-second block times and plans to introduce 200ms sub-blocks for even faster transactions. Transaction fees are up to 95% lower than Ethereum L1, making Unichain an option for developers and users seeking cost-effective solutions. By unifying liquidity across chains, Unichain creates a seamless environment for cross-chain DeFi transactions, enabling users to maximize asset utility. Unichain is part of the Optimism Superchain ecosystem, which emphasizes unified Layer 2 blockchains and interoperability standards. Leveraging ERC-7683 standards and partnerships with bridge providers like Wormhole and LayerZero, Unichain simplifies cross-chain transactions, making it easier for users to interact across different networks.

Unichain is now the first L2 to build blocks inside a trusted execution environment (TEE) – this upgrade brings more transparency to block building, ensures priority ordering, mitigates extractive MEV, and introduces support for revert protection. Powered by Rollup-Boost, the TEE-based block builder on Unichain was built by Uniswap Labs and Flashbots. Specifically, Unichain now has:

  • Fair transaction ordering. The TEE orders transactions based purely on priority fees. The system is designed to support public attestations, which will go live soon. This approach improves fairness, reduces reliance on the sequencer, and represents a meaningful step toward a more decentralized Unichain.
  • MEV protection and value sharing. Transactions on Unichain go into a private, encrypted mempool. Priority ordering reduces opportunities for MEV extraction. Combined with verifiable block building, this kind of predictability and verifiability strengthens the guarantees that developers can rely on to build value-capture mechanisms like MEV taxes.
  • Less wasted gas. Unichain makes it possible for developers to enable "revert protected transactions" meaning users do not need to pay gas for failed transactions for apps that have enabled this feature. This is done by pre-simulating transactions and not including ones that are expected to fail.

Hayden Adams' Journey to Uniswap

Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap, was a mechanical engineering major who worked at Siemens doing heat flow simulations. Following his layoff, he contacted his friend Karl Floersch, who encouraged him to explore Ethereum, stating, >"Congratulations. you can now work on Ethereum. it's the best thing ever. it's going to change the world it's the future decentralized smart contracts blah blah."

In July 2017, after being laid off, Hayden Adams was introduced to smart contract technology by his friend, Karl Floersch. Simultaneously, Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, published a blog post discussing automated market makers (AMMs) as a possibility on the Ethereum protocol, which inspired Adams. Adams began developing Unipeg, a protocol utilizing an on-chain AMM for decentralized exchanges on the Ethereum Network. He was later formally introduced to Buterin, who advised him to apply for an Ethereum Foundation grant and to rename the project to Uniswap. Hayden launched Uniswap V1 on November 2nd, 2018, at Devcon 4.