Analysis of the user behaviors captured on DEXs across the various layer one and two networks.
Decentralized exchanges have continued to increase their market share, spurred on by high Ethereum gas prices, a rapid release of decentralized token sales, and layer two networks incentivizing developers to make their protocols accessible to users on different networks.
The latest findings by Covalent in Cointelegraph Consulting’s biweekly newsletter indicate that the top DEXs on Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche C-Chain, and Polygon (formerly Matic) began to rise in volume as Ethereum gas prices pushed higher.
PancakeSwap became the first DEX on BSC to breach the $1 billion mark in volume over a 24-hour period, despite entering February with only around $75 million per day. Pangolin on Avalanche C-Chain and Quickswap on Polygon also set new highs in 24-hour volume, with $35 million and $6 million respectively.
Taking a closer look at the state of gas fees on Ethereum, the average gas cost per transaction on Uniswap for the top 5 pairs throughout February was over $60. By comparison, Pancakeswap transactions averaged just $0.75. Looking at efficiency, the gas fee on Uniswap constituted an average of 0.52% of the transaction value, whereas Pancakeswap users only spent an average of 0.026%.
Still, the majority of large traders still prefer the established presence of Ethereum, with the average transaction-value across the month of February nearly $17,000 on Uniswap. The closest competitor in that category was Pangolin at $6,000 per transaction. Pancakeswap users were much more frequent with their transactions but at a much smaller value.
Switching to BTC, daily trading volume across all centralized and decentralized exchanges skyrocketed to an all-time high toward the end of February. On Feb. 26, the global volume hit $350 billion, a figure three times bigger than the previous all-time high set on Jan. 29, when global figures peaked at $110 billion.
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