Which DEX made a fortune during the USDC depegging crisis?

Original Title: 《Uniswap, Curve Finance, SushiSwap make a killing amidst market uncertainty》

Written by: Suzuki Shillsalot, AMBcrypto

Compiled by: Jordan

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank led to a depegging of the US dollar stablecoin USDC over the weekend, briefly dropping to a low of $0.87. FUD sentiment also spread across the crypto market; however, the impact of this black swan event seems to be less severe than anticipated, with trading activity and fee revenue on DEXs (decentralized exchanges) experiencing exponential growth.

According to data from DeFiLlama, on March 11, the total trading volume on DEXs surged to $15.12 billion, reaching a four-month high with a weekly growth rate exceeding 100%. The fee revenue collected by Uniswap also hit its highest level since May 10, 2022, and the ratio of trading volume between aggregated DEXs and centralized exchanges (CEXs) (which reflects the market dominance of DEXs) rose to 26.66%.

Uniswap, Curve Finance, SushiSwap emerge as "big winners" during market uncertainty

For the crypto community, the decline of centralized entities is beneficial for the development of DeFi, especially after the collapse of FTX, as more users choose to abandon centralized exchanges and explore self-custody. The recent "USDC crisis" triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has further accelerated this trend—data shows that DEXs like Uniswap, Curve Finance, and SushiSwap achieved remarkable growth over the weekend.

First, as a DEX designed specifically for stablecoin swaps, Curve Finance recorded nearly $8 billion in its highest single-day trading volume in the past 24 hours. Additionally, according to CryptoFees data, due to the surge in trading volume, the fee revenue collected on the Curve platform also jumped to $952,000, setting a new high for the past four months.

Next is Uniswap, which is also one of the largest DEXs by trading volume in the current crypto market. Within 24 hours after the USDC depegging, its trading volume soared to $3.45 billion, marking its best performance in the past four months. As of the time of writing this article, the trading fees paid by Uniswap users have also risen to $8.75 billion, reaching a high not seen in the past 10 months.

Another popular DEX is SushiSwap, which also witnessed a surge in activity during the USDC crisis and became one of the most used smart contracts by Ethereum whales.

However, according to DeFiLlama data, SushiSwap's average daily trading volume did not see significant growth in the previous week. At the time of writing this article, the trading volume in the past 24 hours was $5.248 million, reflecting a decrease of 76.76%.

Is the future for DEXs and DeFi?

In the past 3-4 years, DEXs have made remarkable progress. Data disclosed by Token Terminal shows that the number of active developers on DEX platforms has been steadily increasing, indicating a positive outlook for the fundamentals supporting the future of DeFi.

On the other hand, as the Federal Reserve announced a new emergency bank term funding program in the early hours of March 13 (Beijing time) and supported Silicon Valley Bank depositors in accessing their funds on Monday local time, the USDC dollar peg price rebounded and rose to the $0.995 range, essentially restoring its dollar peg, with its market capitalization returning above $40 billion.

It is believed that after this crisis, the crypto community will further understand the risks associated with centralized entities and will inevitably choose DEXs and DeFi more in the future.