Uniswap® Exchange - Exchange^^

Uniswap® Exchange Uniswap was founded to give liquidity — and hence trade, and the benefits that exchanging brings — to the DeFi community. The …

Instead of providing equivalent liquidity depth as a v2 LPs with less capital, v3 LPs can choose to provide greater depth with the same amount of capital as their v2 counterparts. This requires taking on more price risk ("impermanent loss") while supporting greater amounts of trading and earning higher fees.

LPs in more stable pools will likely provide liquidity in particularly narrow ranges. If the ~$25m currently held in the Uniswap v2 DAI/USDC pair was instead concentrated between 0.99 — 1.01 in v3, it would provide the same depth as $5bn in Uniswap v2 as long as the price stayed within that range. If the ~$25m was concentrated into the 0.999 - 1.001 range it would provide the same depth as $50b in Uniswap v2.

The tool below calculates the capital efficiency gains of a concentrated liquidity position (centered around the current price) relative to allocating capital across the entire price curve.

Liquidity Deposit ValueValue of paired tokens$Select ETH price rangeCurrent Price: $1,820V3 Range PositionCapital Required$150,000Fees per $ vs. V25.24xV2 PositionCapital Required$785,779These two positions will earn equal fees and perform idenitcally while the price remains between $1200 and $2800.

At launch, capital efficiency gains will max out at 4000x for LPs providing liquidity within a single 0.10% price range. The v3 pool factory is technically capable of supporting ranges as granular as 0.02%, translating to a maximum 20,000x capital efficiency gains relative to v2. However, more granular pools can increase swap gas costs and might be more useful on Layer 2.

Active Liquidity

If market prices move outside an LP's specified price range, their liquidity is effectively removed from the pool and is no longer earning fees. In this state, an LP's liquidity is composed entirely of the less valuable of the two assets, until the market price moves back into their specified price range or they decide to update their range to account for current prices.

In v3, it is theoretically possible for no liquidity to exist in a given price range. However, we expect rational LPs to continuously update their price ranges to cover the current market price.

Range Orders

v3's LP customizability opens up a novel order feature to complement market orders, which we are calling "range orders".

LPs can deposit a single token in a custom price range above or below the current price: if the market price enters into their specified range, they sell one asset for another along a smooth curve while earning swap fees in the process.

Depositing to a narrow range feels similar to a traditional limit order. For example, if the current price of DAI is below 1.001 USDC, Alice could add $10m worth of DAI to the range of 1.001 — 1.002 DAI/USDC.

Once DAI trades above 1.002 DAI/USDC, Alice's liquidity will have fully converted into USDC. Alice must withdraw her liquidity (or use a third-party service to withdraw on her behalf) to avoid automatically converting back into DAI if DAI/USDC starts trading below 1.002.