The term "vampire mining" was coined when DeFi protocol SushiSwap forked from Uniswap in August 2020. SushiSwap subsequently leeched a good portion of Uniswap's liquidity, but now it appears to be standing on its own as a DeFi "bluechip".
On-chain metrics provider Santiment has taken a deep dive into the SushiSwap DeFi clone. It draws a conclusion that SushiSwap has become a "formidable Uniswap competitor" in its own right. In terms of total value locked, SushiSwap is making gains on Uniswap as it has now surpassed $2 billion according to DeFi Pulse. This puts SushiSwap in sixth place, less than one billion dollars away from overtaking Uniswap.
🍣 If you still think $SUSHI is just an opportunistic clone of $UNI, you haven't been paying enough attention. As a now formidable #Uniswap competitor, #Sushiswap has seen a big trading volume rise without the expected subsequent discussion. Read our take! https://t.co/vT4v7xVZQY pic.twitter.com/xWa0btYpQ6
— Santiment ✈️ 🇫🇷 EthCC (@santimentfeed) January 18, 2021
SushiSwap a "Formidable Uniswap Competitor"
SushiSwap cloned Uniswap in late-August 2020, offering better liquidity mining incentives and distribution of its own governance token. Naturally, hordes of DeFi farmers flocked to the platform seeking a quick buck and Uniswap lost the majority of its liquidity. Santiment observed how the protocol has evolved since then stating:
“Five months on, SUSHI has gone on to show that it’s not just another AMM and is now a formidable Uniswap competitor.”
In terms of DEX volumes, SushiSwap surged into second place with $3.2 billion at the start of the year, the report noted. It also added that SushiSwap is quickly narrowing the amount of trading volume with more than 50% of Uniswap’s with far fewer pairs.
“Interesting thing to note as well is that Sushiswap has only 569 pairs as compared to Uniswap’s 28,428 pairs.”
Uniswap liquidity mining ended in November and there has been no mention of new incentives. On the other hand, SushiSwap is still running its yield farming incentives in addition to staking opportunities. However, it did observe that SUSHI’s social volume is surprisingly low compared to when it first launched. This could indicate that people are more interested in the token price than the platform itself.
SUSHI Price Update
SushiSwap’s native SUSHI token has been experiencing a bit of a revival lately. The token is up nearly 150% so far this month and is trading for $7.42. SUSHI prices are rapidly approaching their post-launch all-time high of just under $9 according to CoinGecko. UNI token prices are also on fire — up 82% in January. The token briefly hit a new all-time high of $10.15 yesterday before dropping back slightly to $9.25.
