[Feature] Breaking down Uniswap's Newest NFT Marketplace

Uniswap, one of the largest decentralised exchanges (DEX), announced the latest implementation of the NFT marketplace in its protocol. Unlike OpenSea, Uniswap’s NFT marketplace is an “aggregator” that gathers listings from multiple marketplaces/platforms and shows them in one interface. The precursor of Uniswap aggregator is genie.xyz, which the DEX acquired in June 2022. Genie.xyz used to be one of the most used aggregators in the NFT marketplace, but it fell off the competition shortly after Uniswap’s acquisition. Since then, multiple new aggregators have joined in the battle of the aggregated marketplace.

So, what is so unique about Uniswap newest NFT marketplace?

1. Airdrop

Uniswap distributes approximately 5 million USDC to historical Genie users based on a snapshot taken over half a year ago on April 15, 2022. Any wallet that completed more than one transaction before the snapshot would entitle to free money of 300 USDC. If you are one of the lucky holders that held the “Genie:Genesis NFT” as of the snapshot, you can claim a whopping 1,000 USDC for free.

2. Listing

Uniswap claimed it has more listings than the leading NFT marketplace, which is obviously referring to OpenSea in this case. The statement is technically true, as it is what an aggregator marketplace does; there is nothing special about this.

3. Transaction fee

One of the reasons to use an NFT aggregator is to buy NFT in bulk, saving gas fees at the same time. Compared with another one of the hottest aggregators in town, Blur.io, gas fees using Uniswap are slightly lower. Yet the transaction speed is somewhat slower, which reminded me of the bad experience using genie.xyz back then: many failed transactions in the NFT sweeping war against other degens. In short, Uniswap might be better for non-urgent bulk purchases.

4. Rebate

To welcome new users onboard, Uniswap is having a gas rebate promotion of up to 0.01 ETH until December 14, 2022. Bear in mind that only the first transaction of each distinct wallet is eligible for the rebate. Therefore, make your first transaction count by sweeping a few NFTs in a single transaction if you wish to claim the maximum rebate.

5. Open-source

Great news to developers: anyone with decent coding skills can launch their own NFT aggregator.

All-in-all, Uniswap feels like just another ordinary aggregator in the now highly competitive NFT market. Instead, NFT enthusiasts are now focusing on the next potential significant player – Blur.io, which will announce its second series of airdrops in the coming days.