On the morning of November 12th, when Bitcoin was close to $90,000, the community suddenly discovered that Unichain, a DeFi-focused L2, had gone live, causing the UNI token to surge. After all, it's a new chain created by the global largest DEX Uniswap, so everyone is eager to participate, whether it's farming or hunting. But after trying it out, it was found that the infrastructure is not quite complete yet, for example, a cross-chain transfer costs around 0.04 ETH, which is $130, and the gas for on-chain swaps is also quite high. The developers later explained in the community that Unichain has not officially launched yet. But the community has already seen some of the ecosystem developments, and below is a summary of the Unichain ecosystem that has been discussed the most, provided for your reference.

What's in the Ecosystem?

As an L2 solution, Unichain is primarily designed to facilitate more efficient DeFi interactions. Currently, the ecosystem integration is mainly focused on DEXes, and the subsequent infrastructure and applications will be integrated as the mainnet is launched.

DEXes

UnichainSwap UnichainSwap is the first DEX deployed on Unichain, currently supporting basic interactions and liquidity provision. It is also the largest DEX on Unichain, with a trading volume of $6.5 million, more than double that of DyorSwap. DYORSwap DyorSwap is a multi-chain DEX that has already deployed on Mode, Merlin, Zeta, and Blast. On November 12th, it announced support for Unichain, becoming its second-largest DEX with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.8 million.

Stablecoins

On November 12th, Circle announced on the X platform that its USDC stablecoin will soon support Unichain.

Cross-Chain Bridges

Unichain supports the ERC-7683 Ethereum cross-chain intent standard and relies on the Across Protocol to facilitate cross-chain liquidity between different L2s. Other bridges do not seem to have integrated yet, and many people are currently using the main network transfer method for cross-chain, which is exorbitantly expensive in terms of gas fees.

What Memes are People Hyping?

In the current meme-driven market, every project that announces a new chain will see the emergence of native memes or first-launch memes. Unichain is no exception. It's worth noting that there is no inherent meme culture on Uni, and based on previous cases like Scroll and Worldchain, the memes on Unichain are likely to be PVP-oriented, with a low probability of seeing alpha-level memes.

Narrative-Driven Memes

$HEY Haycoin is the first token launched by the Uniswap founder on Uniswap in 2018 and will be community-governed to serve the community in 2023. Haycoin is one of the few memecoins on Unichain with a native narrative, and it has already seen a 1470% price surge in 24 hours. $UNIPRINTER Uniprinter, with the slogan "Are you ready print some $UNI?", announced that it will gradually burn liquidity pools to drive up the token price and give holders more UNI. The price surge has been dramatic, with a 24-hour increase of 8191%.

Animal-Themed Memes

$UNICORN The native logo meme on Unichain, featuring the Uniswap unicorn. It has already seen a 24-hour surge of 6831%, with a market cap of $614,000. $UCAT A unicorn cat-themed meme on Unichain, which saw a peak of around 10x gains but had nearly returned to zero by 1 PM. $UNIDOGE A dog-themed meme on Unichain, also the first meme launched on the chain. Although the Unichain and UnichainSwap communities were enthusiastic about the "Uni-Doge," it was a disappointment, opening at a discount and performing far worse than expected. Most of the memes on Unichain lack native narratives and are typically derivative or remixed versions of existing memes. This type of meme is unlikely to sustain long-term momentum, often resulting in in-platform PVP and zeroing out. Investors should be aware of the risks involved.