Flipping Uniswap, Flopping on Price: PancakeSwap Paradox

Despite a steep drop in the price of its native token, PancakeSwap is quietly dominating the decentralized exchange (DEX) landscape.

The Binance-backed platform has leapfrogged rivals like Uniswap (UNI) and Raydium (RAY), processing over $116 billion in monthly volume and racking up millions in fees and revenue. But even as the DEX sees explosive growth in usage, CAKE — its governance and utility token — has slipped from a late-May high of $2.95 to around $2.30, raising questions about whether market sentiment is out of sync with protocol fundamentals.

This retreat brought its market valuation to about $745 million.

Still, DeFi Llama data shows that PancakeSwap is now the biggest player in the decentralized exchange or DEX industry.

The platform handled over $4.16 billion worth of volume in the last 24 hours, higher than Uniswap’s $1.6 billion and Raydium’s $529 million. It handled $116 billion in the last 30 days, while the two processed transactions worth $95 billion and $27 billion, respectively.

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While PancakeSwap has always been a big player in the DEX industry, its growth surged in May. As the chart below shows, its monthly volume jumped to over $98 billion in May from $31 billion a month earlier.

PancakeSwap DEX volume | Source: DeFi Llama

This growth led to a big increase in fees and revenue. Its monthly fees rose to $131 million in May from $57 million a month earlier. Its revenue rose to $32 million from $14 million. More metrics on active CAKE addresses and staking have also jumped.

CAKE price analysis

PancakeSwap price chart shows that the CAKE price peaked at $2.94 on May 26 and then plunged to $2.30 today. | Source: crypto.news

CAKE has remained above the ascending trendline that connects the lowest levels since May 11. It also remains above the 50-day and 100-day moving averages.

The risk, however, is that the token has formed a small head and shoulders pattern. This pattern comprises a head, left and right shoulders, and a neckline, where it is today.

Therefore, a break below these support levels will point to more downside, with the next point to watch being at $2. That implies a 13% drop below the current level.

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