What Drives Liquidity on Decentralized Exchanges? Evidence from the Uniswap Protocol
摘要
We study liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), identifying factors at the platform, blockchain, token pair, and liquidity pool levels with predictive power for market depth metrics. Using the counterfactual v2 spread metric, we decompose the contribution of each factor on market depth into two channels: total value locked (TVL) and concentration. We further explore how external liquidity from competing DEXs and private inventory on DEX aggregators influence market depth. We find that (i) gas prices, token price returns, and the market share of trading volume affect liquidity through concentration, (ii) internalization of order flow by private market makers affects TVL but not the overall market depth, and (iii) token price volatility, fee revenue, and markout affect liquidity through both channels.