Uniswap v4 is the latest evolution of the world’s leading decentralized exchange (DEX), engineered to deliver faster trades, drastically reduced gas fees, and enhanced control for liquidity providers and developers. As DeFi continues to mature in 2025, Uniswap v4 stands at the forefront of innovation—offering smarter pools, native ETH trading, and a modular design that unlocks unprecedented flexibility.
Whether you're a trader, liquidity provider, or developer, understanding what sets Uniswap v4 apart is key to navigating the future of decentralized finance.
Key Features of Uniswap v4
Uniswap v4 introduces several groundbreaking upgrades over its predecessors. These changes aren’t just incremental—they represent a fundamental shift in how decentralized exchanges operate on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
Here are the core innovations:
- Up to 99.99% lower gas costs for creating liquidity pools
- Hooks: Customizable logic for dynamic fees, limit orders, and auto-reinvestment
- Flash Accounting: Reduces redundant token transfers, cutting gas usage
- Dynamic Fees: Automatically adjusts based on market volatility
- Native ETH Support: Trade directly with ETH—no need to wrap it into WETH
- Singleton Contract Architecture: All pools managed under one contract for efficiency
These features collectively make Uniswap v4 the most capital-efficient and developer-friendly version yet.
👉 Discover how Uniswap v4 can reduce your trading costs today.
A Look Back: Uniswap v1 to v3
To fully appreciate v4’s advancements, it helps to understand how Uniswap evolved.
Uniswap v1 (2018)
The original version introduced the concept of an automated market maker (AMM) to Ethereum. It allowed users to trade ERC-20 tokens against ETH but required ETH as an intermediary for all swaps—meaning no direct token-to-token trading.
It was simple, secure, and trustless—but limited in scope.
Uniswap v2 (2020)
This upgrade was transformative:
- Enabled direct ERC-20 to ERC-20 swaps
- Introduced flash swaps—letting users borrow assets without collateral if repaid within the same transaction
- Added time-weighted price oracles for more accurate pricing
These improvements laid the foundation for DeFi’s explosive growth.
Uniswap v3 (2021)
v3 brought concentrated liquidity, allowing liquidity providers (LPs) to allocate funds within specific price ranges. This dramatically increased capital efficiency—but at a cost:
- Each new pool required a separate smart contract
- Multi-hop trades became expensive due to multiple contract interactions
- Gas fees rose significantly during peak activity
While powerful, v3’s architecture created inefficiencies that v4 now solves.
Deep Dive: What’s New in Uniswap v4?
The Singleton Contract – One Contract to Rule Them All
In previous versions, every new trading pair needed its own smart contract. This led to bloated code, high deployment costs, and slower cross-pool transactions.
Uniswap v4 replaces this with a singleton design: one master contract (the PoolManager) manages all liquidity pools.
Think of it like this: In v3, opening a new store meant building an entire new building. In v4, you’re just opening a new shop inside an existing mall.
Benefits include:
- Deployment costs reduced by up to 99.99%
- Faster multi-hop swaps
- Lower maintenance overhead
This architectural leap makes launching niche or low-volume pools economically viable for the first time.
Hooks: Programmable Liquidity Pools
Hooks are perhaps the most exciting feature in v4. They allow developers to attach custom logic to pools—before or after any swap, mint, or burn event.
With hooks, developers can build:
- Dynamic fee models that increase during volatile markets
- Limit orders that execute only when prices hit a target
- Auto-compounding strategies that reinvest LP rewards
- On-chain limit bots or TWAP (time-weighted average price) executors
This turns passive liquidity pools into active financial instruments—opening doors for sophisticated DeFi strategies previously only possible on centralized platforms.
👉 See how developers are using hooks to automate trading strategies.
Flash Accounting: Smarter Token Handling
In earlier versions, every swap triggered multiple ERC-20 transfer() calls—even when balances were being adjusted internally.
Uniswap v4 introduces flash accounting, which tracks all balance changes within the contract and only performs final transfers at the end of a transaction.
This eliminates unnecessary external calls, reducing gas consumption—especially during complex operations like multi-hop trades or flash swaps.
Imagine ordering five dishes at a restaurant. v3 brings each dish out one by one. v4 prepares everything behind the scenes and delivers it all at once—faster and more efficient.
Dynamic Fees: Adaptive Pricing for Better Returns
While v3 offered fixed fee tiers (0.05%, 0.3%, 1%), v4 enables dynamic fees through hooks.
Pools can now:
- Increase fees during high volatility to protect LPs from impermanent loss
- Lower fees during stable periods to attract more traders
- Adjust based on trading volume or external oracle data
This creates a self-optimizing system where LPs earn more when risk is high, and traders pay less when conditions are favorable—a true win-win.
Native ETH Support: No More Wrapping
Previously, users had to wrap ETH into WETH before trading—a two-step process that cost extra gas.
Uniswap v4 supports native ETH directly in swaps and liquidity provision.
It’s like paying with cash instead of a gift card. Simpler, faster, cheaper.
This change streamlines user experience and removes a longstanding friction point in DeFi interactions.
Subscribers: Earn Rewards Without Losing Control
In v3, earning extra rewards often required staking your LP position—temporarily giving up control over your funds.
v4 introduces subscribers, a permissionless system where third-party protocols can offer incentives without requiring custody of LP tokens.
You keep full control of your position while still earning yield from external integrations—like yield boosters or gamified reward programs.
How ERC-6909 Makes Pools More Efficient
Uniswap v4 adopts ERC-6909, a new token standard designed for multi-asset management with minimal gas overhead.
Unlike ERC-1155 (which was considered but rejected for its callback complexity), ERC-6909 allows:
- Multiple asset types in one contract
- Atomic minting and burning of positions
- No mandatory external calls during transfers
For LPs and traders, this means:
- Lower gas fees when adding or removing liquidity
- Fewer approvals needed
- Faster execution for high-frequency strategies
It’s a subtle but critical upgrade that enhances scalability and user experience across the board.
Who Should Use Uniswap v4?
Traders
- Benefit from lower gas fees
- Enjoy native ETH trading
- Access better prices via optimized routing
Liquidity Providers
- Customize strategies using hooks
- Optimize returns with dynamic fees
- Reduce costs with singleton architecture
Developers
- Build composable DeFi primitives
- Launch innovative trading tools
- Monetize hooks via subscription models
Even if you’re not ready to migrate yet, Uniswap’s router automatically finds the best path across v2, v3, and v4—so you still benefit from v4’s efficiencies without changing your behavior.
Current Status of Uniswap v4
Uniswap v4 is live on over 10 blockchains, including:
- Ethereum
- Polygon
- Arbitrum
- Optimism
- Base
- BNB Chain
- Avalanche
- Blast
- Zora
- World Chain
Liquidity is gradually shifting from v3 to v4. While many deep pools still reside in v3, new deployments are increasingly favoring v4 due to its cost advantages and extensibility.
Importantly: There is no forced migration. Users can choose which version suits their needs best.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is Uniswap v4 live?
A: Yes. Uniswap v4 has been deployed across multiple blockchains as of 2025.
Q: Do I need to migrate my v3 liquidity manually?
A: No. Migration is optional and user-driven. You can continue using v3 pools if preferred.
Q: Are gas fees really 99.99% lower?
A: For pool creation, yes—thanks to the singleton contract. Ongoing swap fees also see significant reductions due to flash accounting and ERC-6909.
Q: Can I use native ETH in all pools?
A: Yes. Native ETH is supported across all functions—swaps, adds, and removes.
Q: What are hooks in simple terms?
A: Hooks are customizable code snippets that let pools react intelligently to market conditions—like setting limit orders or adjusting fees automatically.
Q: Does Uniswap still support older versions?
A: Yes. The Uniswap interface routes trades across v2, v3, and v4 to ensure optimal pricing regardless of protocol version.
👉 Start exploring Uniswap v4 features with low-cost trading options.
Final Thoughts
Uniswap v4 isn’t just another upgrade—it’s a reimagining of what a decentralized exchange can be. With its singleton architecture, programmable hooks, native ETH support, and gas-efficient design, it sets a new benchmark for DeFi innovation.
As adoption grows throughout 2025, expect to see a surge in custom pools, automated strategies, and novel financial products built on top of v4’s flexible foundation.
For users, this means cheaper trades, smarter liquidity, and greater control—all while maintaining the decentralization and security that define Ethereum’s ethos.