Approach

• In this Analysis, You will read about Ethereum DEXs. We want to know how DEXs are changing over time since January 2022. I selected the top 5 DEXs on Ethereum Chain. UniswapV2, UniswapV3, Balancer, Curve, and Sushiswap and compared them together.
• I went through these DEXs and analyzed these parameters:
• Swappers
• Swaps
• Swap Volume
• Top Pairs Transactions/Volume
• Top Assets Transactions/Volume
• Users Breakdown
• New Users and platforms

Introduction

What are DEXs?

• A decentralized exchange (DEX) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace that connects cryptocurrency buyers and sellers. In contrast to centralized exchanges (CEXs), decentralized platforms are non-custodial, meaning a user remains in control of their private keys when transacting on a DEX platform.

What is Ethereum?

• Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that establishes a peer-to-peer network that securely executes and verifies application code, called smart contracts. Smart contracts allow participants to transact with each other without a trusted central authority.

Method

• The Methodology was simple. We have a DEX table on Ethereum tables. All needed parameters like swappers, Transactions, Volume, and Symbols are available on that table. I used the Concat SQL function and created pairs. Concat(symol_in,’→’,symbol_out).
• All Data is from January 2022.

Swappers and Swaps

• Uniswap has the highest number of unique swappers in comparison to Sushiswap, Balancer, and Curve. Almost 85% of total swappers, Swapped their assets on Uniswap V2 and V3.
• Over time, The total number of swappers on Uniswap-v2 decreased but on Uniswap-v3 didn’t change too much. Also, Curve and Balancer keep their users over time and didn’t change. Sushiswap swappers decreased a little lastly in comparison to the beginning of the year.

Based on the total number of swaps, Uniswap has a huge difference from other top DEXs. Uniswap V2 and V3 had nearly 23M Swaps since January 2022 While the third place which is Sushiswap had 2.9M Swaps. The Weekly share of transactions, Curve, and Balancer shares didn’t change. The Sushiswap shares decreased over time and Uniswap-v2 increased from 40-50% of shares up to 68%.

The average weekly number of swaps per User was similar on DEXs. Almost all DEXs users had an average of 3 swaps. Uniswap V2 had the highest growth. The average weekly swaps on this platform increased from 2 up to 6 swaps per user. Overall, Since January 2022, Balancer and Curve users had the highest average weekly swaps.

Swap Volume

• The total swap volume on Uniswap is mindblowing. Swappers on Uniswap v3 and v2 swapped more than 390B US dollars since January 2022. It’s a big number not only on DEXs Also in the Crypto world. Because of the Crypto market, The swap volume on all platforms decreased. After Uniswap, Curve with almost 63B US dollars is in second place. Overall, 495B US dollars went through these 5 platforms. The highest swap volume happened on May 9. We all know that LUNA and UST crashed on that time.

• It is interesting that Curve swappers had the highest average swap volume in comparison to other top DEXs. The difference between Curve with other platforms is huge and unusual. The average swap volume on Curve is 203K US dollars while the second place which is Uniswap-v3 had 65K US dollars. Over time, The average swap volume on all platforms decreased but the Curve average dropped more than others.

Top Pairs based on Transactions

• Based on Transactions, We can say that USDC → WETH and WETH → USDC is almost the top pairs on all platforms. Only on Curve Platform, USDT is more popular than USDC. The Top pair on this platform is USDT → WETH and WETH → USDT. However, even on Uniswap, USDT is much more popular than other assets. Overall, We can say that swaps from and to Stablecoins are the most popular pairs on DEXs.

Top Pairs Based on Volume

• Top Pairs based on volume are similar to top pairs based on transactions. In this parameter USDC and USDT swaps to WETH and WETH to USDC and USDT are two popular pairs on these top 5 platforms.

Top Assets

• When we examined the top pairs, We could guess the top assets that swapped from and to. USDC, WETH, and USDT are three popular assets on DEXs. There were some tokens that only is a top asset on one Platform. For example, the FRAX token is only popular on Uniswap-v2 or UST which is popular only on Curve.

Users Breakdown

• The large group of users on all DEXs had only one swap since January 2022. The Large group of users on Uniswap-v2 and Sushiswap swapped between 100 and 1K US dollars. The large group of users on Uniswap-v3, Balancer, and Curve swapped between 1K and 10K US dollars. Uniswap has the highest number of whales which swapped above 130K US dollars.

New Users

• I examined some of the key parameters and as you see, Uniswap is in the first place based on all key parameters. Based on New users, Uniswap had the highest number of new users since January 2022. Uniswap had more than 1.9M new users. Sushiswap with nearly 390K new users is in the next place.

Conclusion

• Swap activities are one the most popular activities in the Crypto world. A huge volume and number of swaps happen every day. With various options, Each platform tries to gain more shares in this market. Uniswap is one the successful and pioneer project in this market. Based on these 5 DEXs, Nearly 495B US dollars swapped since January 2022, and 390B of them belong to Uniswap V2 and V3. Numbers are big and mindblowing.

Summary

• Almost in All parameters, Uniswap V2 and V3 are the most popular DEX.
• Both versions of Uniswap have almost 85% of swappers.
• Uniswap Has almost 23M Transactions while Sushiswap has 2.9M, Curve has 673K and Balancer has 542K transactions.
• Curve with 63B US dollars is the second top DEX based on Volume while Curve was in fourth place based on transactions. Again, Uniswap has the highest swap volume.
• The average weekly swap volume on Curve is 203K US dollars. Much higher than other DEXs.
• The user’s behavior is similar on all DEXs.The average number of swaps per user is around 3 transactions.
• USDC → WETH and WETH → USDC is the most popular pair in all platforms based on transactions and volume.
• The large group of users had one swap and the swap volume was 100-1K US dollars.
• Uniswap and Sushiswap have the highest number of new users.
• The large group of users chose only one DEX and swapped their assets in one platform.