Uniswap V4 Is Live But UNI Price Stumbles: Wrong Timing?

Uniswap v4 is live, but UNI price is struggling for momentum. Is the timing wrong? Raydium is already a threat to Uniswap DEX.

Uniswap Labs, the team behind Uniswap, one of the world’s largest decentralized exchanges (DEX), recently released Uniswap v4 under a business license.

Despite this positive development, UNI

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remains stagnant, struggling under a deluge of selling pressure from determined bears eager to erase the gains made in Q4 2024.

According to Uniswap Labs, the launch of the highly anticipated v4 marks the start of “unlimited customization onchain.” It is also a milestone for decentralized finance (DeFi), where Uniswap ranks among the largest by total value locked (TVL).

For the first time ever, you can LP using hooks on the Uniswap web app

Unlocking unlimited customization onchain pic.twitter.com/AJ7iKW1Kh0

— Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap) February 2, 2025

Data from DeFiLlama shows that the DEX manages over $5.5 billion in assets across multiple chains, with most swaps occurring on Ethereum, the largest smart contract platform by market cap.

(Source)

Uniswap v4 Is Live: What Does it Mean For Uniswap DEX?

Unlike Uniswap v3, the latest iteration introduces features aimed at addressing high swapping fees and improving capital efficiency. With Uniswap v4, analysts note that simple swaps on the DEX could see gas fees reduced by up to 99%.

Additionally, transactions will be faster and more efficient, with added protection against Sandwich or MEV attacks. MEV bots, which have been causing havoc on Solana, negatively impact user experience.

Testing a $1000 ETH -> USDT swap like 12hrs after launching v4

Our routing recommends a multihop swap ETH -> USDC -> USDT through two v4 pools with a combined tvl of $400k as the best price

Even compared to a single hop through the any of the v3 ETH/USDT pools with a combined… pic.twitter.com/gE973XYeN3

— Hayden Adams (@haydenzadams) February 1, 2025

Liquidity providers (LPs), pivotal in the automated market maker (AMM) model pioneered by Uniswap, have enhanced functionalities. For instance, with the implementation of ERC-6909, there’s a more efficient LP structure that significantly boosts capital efficiency.

Meanwhile, developers working with Uniswap benefit from lower contract redundancies, which further reduce costs, thanks to the Singleton Contract introduced in v4. There’s also the concept of flash accounting, which optimizes internal accounting for lower execution costs.

Perhaps the most significant enhancement in v4 is the introduction of “hooks.” Hooks are custom plugins for smart contracts that can modify trading logic at the liquidity provision level. Developers describe Hooks as a game-changer, allowing for more fluid operations.

By integrating custom trading logic into the hundreds, if not thousands, of Uniswap liquidity pools, developers can execute advanced functionalities like dynamic fee adjustments based on market volatility, create limit orders for better trade execution, and automatically reinvest LP rewards to boost yields.

Will UNI Price Recover and Push Market Share?

Despite these bullish features, UNI price has had no significant positive impact. Technically, sellers are in control, and this trend will likely persist unless there’s a close above $11. On the other hand, if sellers break through $8.5, UNI might tank further.

(UNIUSDT)

In such a scenario, sentiment could decline, prompting investors to look at alternatives like Raydium, which has been gaining strength over the past year.

Last year, on-chain trackers noted that Raydium, the largest DEX on Solana by TVL, surpassed Uniswap in January 2025.