Uniswap price pumps, DeFi hits 14-month high amid Binance drama
Uniswap (UNI) is the best performing top cryptocurrency since word of Binance’s $4 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) first broke.
UNI, a governance token for the top decentralized exchange by trade volume, has jumped more than 22% over the past three days, from around $5.20 to $6.35.
The move has swelled UNI’s market cap by more than $750 million to $4.8 billion, it’s highest point since August. UNI is now valued above bitcoin cash (BCH), although it’s still 86% down on its all-time high set in 2021.
Bloomberg first reported word of Binance and former CEO Changpeng Zhao’s run-in with the DOJ on Monday. Zhao stepped down as CEO the next day and pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations as part of a plea deal.
Prosecutors are now pushing for Zhao, who was released on $175 million bond, to stay in the US until sentencing in February.
Crypto prices initially held steady but by the time official confirmation came on Tuesday, 5% had been wiped from the market’s total cap, equal to $68 billion per TradingView data.
Binance’s native cryptocurrency BNB slid up to 10% while bitcoin and ether slipped around 4% each.
Crypto overall has since fully recovered, now back at $1.4 trillion — still up by more than a quarter since BlackRock filed its spot bitcoin ETF application in June.
The DeFi sector is particularly sharp. The total value of all DeFi token projects is now $57.75 billion according to TradingView, up by more than a quarter over the past month.
DeFi is now at its largest valuation since August 2022, only weeks before FTX went bust.
BNB still has a ways to go, however. Out of the top 30 or so cryptocurrencies by market cap, BNB has been the second-worst performing since just before Bloomberg’s Monday report, down 5.7% as of 8:30am ET. Polygon (MATIC) had shed 6.8%.
Uniswap’s overperformance could be attributed to kneejerk reactions from investors looking for a narrative to latch onto amid the chaos.
After all, the US government has notched a big win against the largest centralized crypto exchange for lax money laundering protections. Similar actions against decentralized exchanges could be more difficult.
Uniswap has also seen rising revenues after adding a 0.15% fee on certain trades through its interface in October.