Uniswap Labs, the leader in decentralized finance (DeFi), debuts Unichain to the public, a blockchain designed to take speed, efficiency, and cross-chain liquidity to the next level. Users and developers have processed over 88 million test transactions and 12 million test smart contracts on Unichain’s testnet in just a few months in anticipation of the launch. There will be 80+ applications and infrastructure providers supporting or building on Unichain.
Layer 2 (L2) blockchains like Unichain are critical for driving blockchain adoption with crypto traders, digital assets creators and institutions alike. They help alleviate congestion on Ethereum, enabling faster transactions, lower fees, and a seamless experience across blockchains. For everyday crypto users, this means cheaper and faster trading, access to integrated stablecoins like USDC, and improved cross-chain swapping.
“Unichain is built differently,” said Hayden Adams, Founder and CEO of Uniswap Labs. “We’re here to make DeFi faster, cheaper, more decentralized, which is why we launched Unichain to be permissionless from day one.”
Redefining Industry Standards
Unichain will unlock the next generation of markets for both users and builders with one-second block times, with plans to reach 250 milliseconds, which will make Unichain the fastest chain in the industry. Today, user benefits include:
- Swap and provide liquidity: Access the latest versions of the Uniswap Protocol on the Uniswap web app and wallet.
- No swapping fees: Uniswap Labs is waiving all interface fees for swaps on Unichain for the first few months after launch.
- Launch a token: Get started with a token launcher on Unichain or deploy a contract manually.
- Lend and borrow: Earn interest or borrow against collateral.
- Use stablecoins: Native Circle integration brings USDC to Unichain, with other stablecoins to follow.
The Open, Faster, Cheaper Chain for Crypto Traders and Builders
Unichain is built on Ethereum’s core principles—open, permissionless, and decentralized. As the first L2 to launch as a Stage 1 rollup, this means that Unichain is committed to decentralization on day one. Anyone can participate in maintaining the integrity of the chain with permissionless fault proofs—a feature that allows anyone to challenge transactions. Later this year, the Unichain Validation Network will enable anyone to verify blocks, further decentralizing the chain.
For crypto traders, high gas fees and slow transactions have long been a problem. With fast block times and low fees, Unichain is optimized for onchain markets, offering one-second blocks and 95% cheaper gas than Ethereum. In the coming months, Unichain will introduce advanced capabilities like Flashbot’s Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), which leads to faster finality, a term used in DeFi to describe transaction settlements on Ethereum.
Finally, the experience for users moving crypto between different blockchains can be slow and cumbersome. Uniswap Labs aims to fix this problem with innovations like ERC-7683, a universal standard developed in partnership with Across that reduces friction when swapping or trading across chains.
Unichain is built on the Optimism Superchain, with a vision of creating a network of interoperable chains. The public can access Unichain via the Uniswap Interface and App. For more technical details, including for the full list of applications deployed on Unichain, visit Unichain or read the blog.
