After launching its Ethereum Layer-2 solution, Unichain, Uniswap has revealed its Developer Grant initiative. The program is designed to drive innovation across Unichain and accelerate the work of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) developers.
According to an X post from the Uniswap Foundation, the Grant is only accessible to certain groups of people.
Five Programs Under Unichain Developer Grant
Builders eligible to access the grant must have projects centered around novel swapping mechanisms, innovation upon the DeFi experience, or improvements to liquidity infrastructure. The Unichain Developer Grant is grouped into five categories based on the needs of the projects.
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The Unichain Builder Open Call provides developers with funding, technical support, and go-to-market resources to advance the Uniswap community.
Unichain Infinite Hackathon is another sub-program under the new initiative. It is open to accepting projects from all around the world. These entities will compete for a monthly grant award of $7,500.
For the Unichain Retro Grants, a dedicated committee of DeFi experts will select projects that have demonstrated traction and impact. Once their eligibility is established, they can apply for up to $7,500 in grant funding.
The Audit Subsidy Fund will commence in 2025. Developers and teams can apply to qualify for funds to cover their audit costs as soon as it is activated.
As part of the Superchain, Unichain developers can qualify for Optimism Collective Grants programs.
Economic Impact of Uniswap’s Unichain Launch
The launch of Unichain is expected to improve the Uniswap ecosystem. This includes improved cross-chain interoperability, a decentralized validator network, and faster speed.
Michael Nadeau, the founder of The DeFi Report, recently outlined three economic impacts of the launch of Unichain. He believes that the Ethereum L2, designed for DeFi and powered by the Superchain, will effectively circumvent validators.
Notably, Uniswap’s trading revenue might undergo a significant overhaul with Unichain. The fees, totaling about $1.3 billion last year, usually go to liquidity providers, Ethereum validators, MEV bots, and the L2 sequencers. With Unichain, Nadeau is confident that Uniswap Labs will capture this value instead. Next, the researcher says Uniswap can capture MEV since they will own the validators on Unichain.
In addition, liquidity providers are bound to keep receiving all trading fees. The implementation of Unichain could enhance the possibility of their participation in the settlement and MEV. Generally, this transition may impact ETH validators, token holders, and Arbitrum and Base sequencers.
Uniswap Price Response to Unichain Development
The recent sentiment surrounding Uniswap has triggered an upsurge in the price of UNI. Immediately after Uniswap unveiled the launch of Unichain last week, the price of UNI skyrocketed, jumping 15% in 24 hours to $8.330.
It later fluctuated to around $8.19 when the community questioned Vitalik Buterin’s disposition towards the project.
As of writing, UNI was trading at $8.16. This growth corresponds to a 24-hour price gain of 10.29% and a weekly surge of 11.55%. As expected, this has pushed the token’s market capitalization to $4.9 billion.
With more developments unfolding, the Unichain launch could begin a sustained UNI rebound.
