Uniswap Labs and UNI holders may earn $468M from Unichain

Uniswap’s (CRYPTO:UNI) newly launched layer 2 blockchain, Unichain, has the potential to generate significant financial gains for Uniswap Labs and UNI tokenholders, with earnings projected to reach $468 million annually, according to a DeFi report by Michael Nadeau.

The report suggests that Unichain could capture approximately $368 million in fees that were previously directed to Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) validators.

Nadeau explained that these earnings would largely result from Unichain’s ability to manage its own validators, allowing it to retain fees that would have otherwise gone to Ethereum.

Additionally, Uniswap Labs could benefit from Maximum Extractable Value (MEV), which could account for about $100 million over the past year, based on current trends.

Nadeau stated, “As Unichain owns all of its validators, Uniswap Labs can collect these MEV profits instead of Ethereum validators.”

He further noted that Uniswap may choose to distribute part of these gains to UNI tokenholders, which could increase returns for them.

The launch of Unichain also presents new opportunities for liquidity providers, who may participate in settlement and MEV capture through staking on Unichain, enhancing their involvement in the ecosystem.

However, this development could lead to potential losses for Ethereum validators and ETH holders due to decreased fees and a reduction in burned ETH following Unichain’s deployment.

With Uniswap shifting its reliance away from Ethereum, trading and settlement fees are being redirected to its own network.

Unichain was launched on October 10 by Uniswap, the decentralised exchange.

Reactions within the crypto community have been mixed, with some praising the potential for faster transactions, while others, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, have questioned the need for an additional layer 2 blockchain.

At the time of writing, the Uniswap price was $7.61.