Uniswap UNI climbs 32% weekly as Robinhood volume fuels DeFi rally

UNI climbed 32% over the past week to reclaim $5, a seven-month high, as Robinhood Chain volume and an accelerating token burn lifted the DeFi sector. The rally extended into the weekend, with UNI up 14% in 24 hours to trade near $5.30 after a 69% August recovery from a low of $3.19.

Token Terminal data shows Uniswap's v4 and v3 deployments accounted for all of last week's $325.2 million growth in tokenized-stock DEX volume, with daily Robinhood Chain volume reaching a record $130 million — roughly ten times higher than a month ago. Uniswap controls about 99% of tokenized-stock DEX liquidity on Robinhood Chain, which has pushed more than $20 billion through the protocol since launching less than two months ago.

Spot inflows reached $10.5 million in 24 hours, the highest daily figure this year, while the protocol burned more than $300,000 in UNI over ten days — an annualized pace near $160 million. Against a $3.17 billion market capitalization, a sustained burn at that rate would remove roughly 5% of the token's value from circulation each year.

Robinhood Chain Drives the Burn

The burn rate is calculated from a ten-day window multiplied out to a year, an assumption that carries risk given the concentration of flow from a single source. If Robinhood shifts routing, redeploys to its own liquidity layer, or hits a regulatory obstacle on tokenized equities in a major jurisdiction, a large share of Uniswap's recent throughput moves with it. Unichain, Uniswap's Ethereum Layer 2, has grown to more than 533 million transactions and about 6.5 million wallets as of Aug. 24, providing another potential source of fee generation.

The derivatives picture shows a divergence worth watching. Both retail and smart money are skewed long — the global long/short ratio sits at 1.748 and top trader positioning at 1.798 — but open interest dropped 6.29% during the 24 hours price ran 11%. Price rising while open interest falls suggests either smart money trimming longs into strength or shorts getting liquidated, neither unambiguously bullish. On-chain data adds another layer of caution: net UNI moved toward exchanges on Aug. 30, an inflow of 523,585 tokens, following a larger inflow of 603,175 tokens the prior day.

DeFi Rally Broadens Beyond Uniswap

The move is not isolated to Uniswap. Arbitrum's ARB gained 24% in a day to re-enter the top 100 altcoins, and Curve's CRV rose 15% alongside it, confirming a broad DeFi rally rather than a single-asset event. Bitcoin held its $78,000 range, giving higher-beta tokens room to outperform.

UNI now faces resistance at $5.37, with a daily close above $5.12 confirming the breakout. A rejection at the $5.05-$5.12 supply zone could produce a swift flush to $4.49 support within 24 to 36 hours. Polymarket assigns a 17% chance UNI reaches $8 before the end of 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.