Is it finally time to buy this crypto unicorn?

Uniswap (UNI -1.37%) is one of the best-known pioneers of decentralized finance (DeFi) and has always had a passionate following in the crypto space. It is now the 18th crypto in the world by market capitalization, but the primary lure of Uniswap has always been for die-hard crypto enthusiasts, not ordinary investors. In fact, if you’re not into DeFi, you might never have heard of Uniswap.

Hence the recent announcement of Robinhood Markets (HOOD -3.51%) that it added Uniswap to the crypto trading menu on its popular app is so exciting. There are only 13 cryptos on the menu today, so the move could help Uniswap find more mainstream acceptance, especially among young millennials. Anyone who opens the Robinhood app on their phone can now find Uniswap right next to fan favorites like Bitcoin (BTC -3.16%) or Ethereum (ETH -3.86%). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Uniswap has already started to rally.

See the DeFi unicorn

Since its launch in November 2018, Uniswap has been a leader in the DeFi space. Backed by a number of high-profile venture capital firms (including Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz), Uniswap popularized the concept of the decentralized exchange (DEX). This focus makes it very different from Coin base (COIN -4.27%), which is a centralized exchange (CEX). Uniswap also pioneered the concept of automated market maker (AMM), which describes how liquidity is added to the market. They may seem like obscure or mysterious terms if you’ve never worked on Wall Street, but they’re actually important foundations for decentralized finance.

Image source: Getty Images.

Of course, there are many other decentralized exchanges out there – all with funny names like SushiSwap (SUSHI -5.16%) or Pancake Swap (CAKE -1.69%). However, Uniswap is generally recognized to be the biggest and the best because it specializes in crypto tokens traded on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition, Uniswap just passed a major milestone (more than $1 trillion traded in its lifetime) in May. Controversial new research from Kaiko now suggests that daily trading volume on Uniswap may soon come close to matching Coinbase.

Back in the summer of 2020 (also known to crypto enthusiasts as “DeFi Summer”), Uniswap got so much love that even sincere mainstream publications like Bloomberg swooned over it. The market value of Uniswap is now over $5 billion (five times the amount of a traditional Silicon Valley unicorn), and the logo of Uniswap is a pink and white unicorn. So, by investing in Uniswap, you are investing in a true DeFi unicorn.

Uniswap and NFTs

Another catalyst for Uniswap this summer could be its strategic move into the non-fungible token (NFT) market. In June, Uniswap announced that it had acquired Genie, a new type of NFT marketplace. Unlike a traditional NFT marketplace like OpenSea, Genie is an aggregator marketplace. This means that it pulls in NFT listings from various other marketplaces to provide users with a more comprehensive set of listings. (In much the same way, a news aggregator pulls content from a number of different news sources into one main dashboard.)

What makes this strategic move so interesting is that Uniswap could use the same market-making technology used to trade crypto-tokens to trade NFTs. The way people trade NFTs now is not entirely efficient because it is sometimes difficult to match a buyer and a seller and then agree on a final selling price for an NFT. Using its proprietary technology, Uniswap could theoretically make this process much more efficient and provide more overall liquidity to the NFT market.

A second chance to buy Uniswap

By investing in Uniswap now, you are potentially gaining access to a crypto with a strong following and huge growth potential based on its position in the DeFi world. Best of all, Uniswap is trading for less than $10 right now. At its all-time high, Uniswap traded for just under $45, so there is definitely some upside here. You may have missed out on buying Uniswap back in 2020, but you have another chance now – and at a great price.