Official: NFT live on Uniwsap!

NFTs are officially live on Uniswap. Since yesterday, in fact, it has been possible for users to trade NFTs on major markets to find more listings and better prices. 

To celebrate NFTs on Uniswap, the decentralized smart-contract-based exchange running on the Ethereum network is sending about 5 million USDC to some long-standing Genie users. It is also offering gas discounts to the first 22,000 NFT users.

Uniswap continues to be open source, reliable and self-sustaining, staying true to its values of decentralization.

NFTs on Uniwsap: all the changes coming

There are many changes, and benefits, that the ecosystem of non-fungible tokens will experience once NFTs are launched on Uniswap. 

First among them is greater interaction between NFTs and ERC-20 tokens, two ecosystems that, as we know, have existed largely separately within cryptocurrencies. However, both essential to growing the digital economy.

The launch of NFTs on Uniswap is in this sense the first step in creating more interoperable experiences between the two ecosystems. 

Second, the first-class experience on Uniswap will be offered to users with the creation of the aggregator: better prices, faster indexing, more secure smart contracts, and efficient execution.

Indeed, aggregators are able to offer better prices as they combine multiple marketplace listings in a single interface. At launch, Uniswap will support OpenSea, X2Y2, LooksRare, Sudoswap, Larva Labs, X2Y2, Foundation, NFT20 and NFTX.

In addition, there will be more gas savings. Specifically, Uniswap’s aggregators, powered by the new open source universal router contract, will save up to 15% on gas costs compared to other NFT aggregators when buying across multiple marketplaces. 

In addition, Uniswap continues to be reliable, transparent, and open source: the same design principles are carried over to NFTs and the front-end code is open source, so Uniswap is the first major NFT platform to achieve such a milestone. 

Issuing USDC to Genie users

As anticipated, Uniswap is distributing about 5 million USDC to some incumbent Genie users to show its gratitude to longtime users and welcome them into the Uniswap community. 

Based on a snapshot taken in April, the exchange platform created two different tiers for recipients. The first, the $300 level, is available to wallets that have completed more than one transaction before the snapshot.

The second, the $1,000 level, is available to wallets that contained Genie-Genesis NFT as of the snapshot. Users are eligible by unique address, which means that multiple Genie-Genesis NFTs in the same wallet are eligible only once.

Moreover, users are eligible for both levels and can apply for their USDC airdrop at app.uniswap.org for the next 12 months.

Uniswap’s proposed gas discount at the launch of NFTs

To welcome its new users, Uniswap has launched a gas discount promotion that will end on 14 December 2022 and can be claimed on 16 January 2023 via the Uniswap app for 12 months.

The first 22,000 distinct wallets that purchase an NFT during this promotional period qualify for a rebate on their first transaction. Partial transactions in which users successfully purchase some NFTs have a chance to qualify for discounts. However, failed transactions are not eligible and the gas rebate is limited to 0.01 ETH. 

For example, if a user spends 0.01 ETH or less on gas, his or her transaction is fully covered; if a user spends more than 0.01 ETH on gas, he or she will receive a discount of 0.01 ETH for that transaction.

Uniswap Labs and the purchase of Genie

In June this year, to continue its mission of unlocking universal ownership and exchange, Uniswap expanded its products to include both ERC-20 tokens and NFTs. 

Indeed, the DEX confirmed that it had purchased Genie, the first NFT marketplace aggregator that allows anyone to discover and exchange NFTs on most platforms.

Since then, NFTs have been integrated into Uniswap products starting with the same platform web app where NFTs are bought and sold on all major marketplaces. In addition, Uniswap integrated NFTs into its API and widgets for developers, making the platform complete for users and builders in Web3.

In any case, this was not Uniswap’s first foray into the NFT world. In fact, in 2019 the platform launched Unisocks, the first instance of NFT liquidity pools and NFTs backed by real-world assets. 

Uniswap’s work on NFT positions in Uniswap v3 helped pioneer on-chain generative SVGs. NFTs are another valuable format in the growing digital economy, not a separate ecosystem from ERC-20s, and they are already an important gateway to Web3. With this vision, Uniswap continues to make significant strides forward.