Uniswap v3 Liquidity Positions Struggle After Gas Fees
Key Summary
A study by Bitquery found that only 18% of Uniswap v3 positions with a value under $1,000 beat holding after gas fees, down from 51% before gas. The study tracked closed regular positions in eight Ethereum v3 pools and found that gas charges significantly impacted liquidity providers, particularly those with small positions.
Background
Bitquery tracked closed regular positions in eight Ethereum v3 pools. For positions below $1,000, the share beating holding fell from 51% before gas to 18% afterward. Gas charges tipped many small Uniswap liquidity positions behind simply holding the tokens, according to blockchain data firm Bitquery’s October 16 study.
Among closed regular positions below $1,000 in eight sampled Ethereum v3 pools, 51% finished ahead before gas, compared with 18% afterward. The median gas bill for that group was 67 cents. Uniswap v4’s flash accounting can reduce transfer overhead for liquidity providers, or LPs, who supply tokens for traders to swap.
Study Findings
Across the return study’s eight sampled Ethereum v3 pools, 49% of 71,166 closed regular positions beat holding before gas. After transaction costs, that share fell to 34%. The effect was particularly sharp below $1,000. A transaction cost measured in cents can consume a narrow advantage over leaving the original tokens in a wallet. Bigger deposits spread that cost over more capital, which helps explain why the before-and-after gap varies so much by position size.
Conclusion
Bitquery’s published size breakdown shows the pattern: Each rounded percentage describes how often a closed regular position beat the holding benchmark. Win frequency differs from the dollar-weighted result: a group can have many small winners and fewer large losers. For the smallest band, gas separates the two win rates by 33 percentage points. That makes even modest execution savings consequential when a position’s advantage over holding is narrow.