On Tuesday, June 21st, Uniswap Labs announced that they will be acquiring Genie, to build a marketplace for NFTs. Uniswap also revealed that one of its core goals is to unlock universal ownership. The recent deal with Genie is a big step in the right direction.
The acquisition will enable Uniswap to stretch beyond ERC-20 tokens. Users will now be able to trade NFTs on the Uniswap web app. Uniswap labs are also making plans to integrate NFTs into its Application Programming Interfaces and Widgets.
Interestingly, this will not be the first time Uniswap will be testing the NFT waters. The decentralized platform launched an experimental NFT called Unisocks three years ago. The NFT featured digital socks that entitled collectors to an actual pair of socks.
Uniswap believes NFTs will be a fundamental feature of the growing digital economy.
Will Uniswap’s Move Impact the NFT Ecosystem?
Uniswap’s acquisition of Genie will boost the protocol’s profile in the bear market. The constant innovations by Uniswap labs will play a part in strengthening investors’ belief in the long-term performance of the project. At the moment, the UNI token is valued at $5.2, with a 4% increase in the last 24 hours.
The protocol’s delve into the NFT space will also encourage more innovation in DeFi and GameFi.
The move will also resuscitate NFT’s falling trading volumes. Interest in NFTs peaked in January this year. However, NFT collectors and investors have been on a decline in the last few months.
Famous NFT platforms have also seen a massive drop in NFT fees. OpenSea has recorded a 97% decrease in revenue from NFT fees since January.
With Uniswap’s exposure to the non-fungible token world, we can expect a boost in digital assets’ trading volumes.
Notably, Uniswap will be airdropping USDC to users who made more than one swap on the platform before April 15th. NFT fans who purchased the Genie Genesis NFT before the aforementioned date will also be airdropped.
