USDC Stablecoin Depeg triggered record High Volumes on DEX’s Curve & Uniswap!

• Decentralized exchanges volume soared high as the uncertainty over Circle’s USDC compelled the traders to swap them for other tokens
• Uniswap recorded one of the highest volumes close to $12 billion along with the other platforms which also experienced traction

The US banks have been facing serious issues as 3 of them have been closed creating fear which the markets. The stocks have been tanking down while the crypto markets underwent a historic rally. However, some of the crypto-based institutions were exposed to the SVB collapse, Circle is one among them. 

Read More: USDC Stablecoin Depeg

Soon after the rounds of Circle being exposed to the SVB collapse circulated within the space, the frightened traders quickly swapped their USDC for other tokens. Interestingly, the DEX or decentralized platforms were preferred over the centralized exchanges. The volume over DEX soared extremely high as the leader Uniswap marked a record-breaking volume of $11.9 billion in a day. 

Centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Bitpay halted payments and transfers from the stablecoin. This caused USDC to depeg heavily that reached below $0.9 and also the gas fees over the DEX soared high as the stablecoin was exchanged with wETH and other tokens. 

🦄 @Uniswap at almost $12b in daily volume, hitting 11 digits for the first time ever!!!

👀 I don’t often tweet volume milestones anymore but that’s over 5% of Nasdaq https://t.co/ZUszhiUNPu

— hayden.eth 🦄 (@haydenzadams) March 12, 2023

The inventor of the Uniswap protocol shared the milestone and said the platform manages to operate 24/7 with ‘zero’ downtime. He also said the platform has provable reserves and maintains full transparency. Therefore, it could be a serious threat to the prevailing centralized platforms. 

Besides, Curve Finance also witnessed a similar spike in trading volume and recorded the biggest trading volume in its history. 

Looks like we have the biggest daily trading volume in history

— Curve Finance (@CurveFinance) March 11, 2023

The trading volume on Curve hit $6.03 billion due to the panic caused by depeg of the stablecoin, USDC. Meanwhile, the platform’s popular stablecoin pool which includes USDC, USDT, and DAI accounted for nearly 80% of the volume. Moreover, the DEX’s liquidity providers (LPs) also earned nearly $4.2 million in fees in the past seven days. 

The pools on Uniswap also spiked. The wrapped ETH or WETH-USDC pool hit $8.8 billion in volume while other pools like USDT-USDC & DAI-USDC hit $6 billion & $1.4 billion respectively. Additionally, the payouts for the LPs over Uniswap also soared high with the two most profitable pairs being WETH-USDC with $4.7 million and USDT-USDC with $2.4 million. 

Additional Read: Crypto Tax Guide 2023

The centralized exchanges have been frequently experiencing the investor’s wrath in times of massive uncertainty. Previously, Binance also witnessed a similar situation and recorded massive outlaws within minutes. Hence, it appears that the market participants are slowly inclining towards the decentralized platforms, nowadays.