Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
Unichain ticker UNI
Summary
Optimistic rollup on Ethereum built on the OP Stack. One sequencer orders transactions into 1-second blocks. Since May 2025 the blocks are assembled by a builder made with Flashbots that runs inside a trusted execution environment, orders transactions by priority fee from a private mempool, and streams 200 ms partial blocks (Flashblocks) as preconfirmations. A batcher posts the transaction data to Ethereum so anyone can rebuild the chain. State claims used by the bridge go through OP Stack dispute games in which, per L2BEAT, anyone can propose or challenge. Users can force a transaction in through Ethereum with up to a 12-hour delay. Block production uses no stake or work of its own. 12141718202122
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainUnichain Mainnet (chain ID 130) is an OP Stack optimistic rollup developed by Uniswap Labs that posts its transaction data to Ethereum and is governed as part of Optimism's Superchain. ETH pays gas; UNI is the Uniswap governance token and exists on Unichain only as a bridged copy of the Ethereum token, so it does not pay fees. The Layer 2 class from the package table is kept: data, withdrawals and fault proofs are anchored to Ethereum.
- Settles to
- EthereumAll transaction data is posted to Ethereum as blobs or calldata. OP Stack blocks become final once the Ethereum block holding their data is finalized. Canonical bridge withdrawals are proven after a state claim covering them is posted (about hourly) and can be finalized no sooner than 7 days later, per Unichain's docs; L2BEAT describes a dispute clock that starts at 3.5 days and can extend when a dispute runs deep. A 3-of-3 multisig including the Optimism Security Council can upgrade the Ethereum contracts with no delay.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- One sequencer. Unichain's docs give its location (us-east-2, Ohio) but do not name the operating entity. L2BEAT lists permissionless state proposals (0.08 ETH bond) and permissionless challenges, and a 3-of-5 Unichain multisig that can change the batcher address, the preconfirmation signer and gas settings.
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: the sequencer's blocks are canonical, and it can still reorganize them until their data lands on Ethereum; after that the chain is derived from Ethereum data and Ethereum's finality governs it. Fault-proof challenges do not reorganize the chain; they only decide which state claims the Ethereum bridge accepts.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Not applicable. Unichain block production uses no stake or work of its own; the sequencer is assigned by the chain's operators, and security comes from Ethereum data availability plus the fault-proof system.
- Finality · Partial. OP Stack chains have staged confidence: a 200 ms Flashblock preconfirmation and a 1-second block both rest on the sequencer alone; a block becomes safe once its data is on Ethereum and final once that Ethereum block is finalized. Only the last stage inherits Ethereum finality.
- Flashblocks preconfirmations · Partial. Flashblocks are sequencer preconfirmations served through RPC providers, described by Unichain as outside the core protocol; they are not Ethereum settlement or finality.
- Validation network · Unknown. The whitepaper and the February 2025 launch post describe a Unichain Validation Network of UNI-staked node operators attesting to blocks. No live deployment, contract or current documentation page for it was found, and unichain.org does not list it among live features.
- Network status · Applies. Unichain Mainnet was producing blocks at review time (Blockscout showed a block at 10:13 UTC on 27 September 2026), and it received the Karst upgrade in July 2026. No sunset or migration notice was found.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security
- Gives up
- Decentralized block production and neutral upgrades: one sequencer orders every transaction, the ordering rules are enforced by trusted hardware rather than by many independent parties, and a 3-of-3 multisig (a Unichain multisig, the Optimism Foundation upgrade safe and the Optimism Security Council) can upgrade the Ethereum contracts with no delay. Withdrawals to Ethereum also wait about a week.The security emphasis rests on Ethereum data availability, permissionless fault proofs and forced inclusion, which L2BEAT rates Stage 1. The trusted-execution builder narrows what the sequencer can do with ordering only if its attestations are checked and the hardware is trusted. The Unichain Validation Network, announced as a further decentralization step, was not found live.
- Full node at home
- Unknown 9101923Unichain publishes no hardware list or chain size of its own; its node page points readers to Optimism's docs. Its node repository runs op-node with op-reth in Docker and requires a synced Ethereum full-node RPC and beacon endpoint, so a home operator also needs an Ethereum node or a trusted provider. Optimism's docs give no Unichain figure, and Unichain adds a block every second, so disk and bandwidth needs cannot be judged from published material.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A protocol-level trust-minimized swap mechanism on Unichain was not reviewed; EVM contracts could implement hash-locked swaps, but none was verified. Cross-chain intent bridges listed in Unichain's docs rely on relayers, not hash locks. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Unknown | No Unichain light client was reviewed. The planned validation network was meant to add block attestations, but it was not found live. |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Unichain was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Unichain is EVM-equivalent, so spend conditions are smart contracts, and Unichain's docs list ERC-4337 smart-account toolkits. It also offers bundles with block or time windows and revert protection. 345 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Rollups | Unknown | Chains that settle to Unichain were not reviewed. Unichain itself is a rollup on Ethereum; its settlement is described in the mechanism and Ethereum dependency notes. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | First-partyUniswap v4, Uniswap v3, Uniswap v2 | Uniswap Labs develops both Unichain and the Uniswap interface, and Uniswap v4 core and periphery contracts are deployed on Unichain; the launch post says v2, v3 and v4 are all available. The protocol itself is governed by UNI holders. Liquidity depth and other venues were not reviewed. 71625 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle lists natively issued USDC on Unichain (0x078D782b760474a361dDA0AF3839290b0EF57AD6), and Unichain is a CCTP domain (10). USDT0 on Unichain is a LayerZero lock-and-mint token backed by USDT locked on Ethereum, not a Tether-issued deployment. Native means issuer-issued on Unichain, not a protocol asset. 726272829 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Unichain were not reviewed. Sky's USDS appears in Unichain's token list, but its design and backing were not assessed here. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolUnichain canonical bridge (OP Stack standard bridge), Circle CCTP, Across, LayerZero, Wormhole, Hyperlane | Deposits and withdrawals between Ethereum and Unichain run through the OP Stack standard bridge contracts (Ethereum-side bridge 0x81014F44b0a345033bB2b3B21C7a1A308B35fEeA); Unichain's docs point users to Superbridge and the Uniswap app as front ends. The docs also list third-party bridges and messaging protocols; their current Unichain support was not individually checked. Risk: Canonical withdrawals wait at least 7 days and depend on the fault-proof system; a 3-of-3 multisig including the Optimism Security Council can upgrade the bridge contracts with no delay and no exit window, per L2BEAT. Third-party bridges add their own relayer, oracle or multisig assumptions, and tokens they mint on Unichain are claims on the bridge, not on the original asset. 6812132127 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemUniscan (uniscan.xyz), Blockscout (unichain.blockscout.com) | Unichain's docs list Uniscan and Blockscout, and both were serving Unichain Mainnet data at review time; the explorer address in the Superchain Registry redirects to Uniscan. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 11203031 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinTrezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 (through MetaMask or Rabby), Ledger (Unichain behind a default-off switch) | See custody rows: Trezor's Ethereum and UNI pages list Unichain as a supported network, but Trezor Suite's own network list does not include it; Ledger Wallet code defines Unichain behind a feature switch that is off by default, and no Ledger page confirms it is on. 33353738 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | PartialSame as native: Unknown | Cannot: Rely on Unichain appearing in Ledger Wallet: its code gates the Unichain network behind a feature switch that is off by default, and no Ledger page confirms the switch is on for usersLedger Wallet's source code includes a Unichain network behind a feature switch that is off by default; the remote setting that could switch it on for users could not be read, Ledger's Unichain coin page returned 404, and its supported crypto assets page as fetched did not name Unichain. The code defines Unichain (chain ID 130) as an EVM network signed with the Ethereum device app. First-party support that sits behind a switch that is off by default counts only as partial support. 3637383940 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (third-party wallet apps named by Trezor)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Send and receive ETH and tokens on Unichain with a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7, confirming each transaction on the device, through MetaMask or Rabby Can: Hold UNI on Unichain; Trezor's UNI page lists Unichain among supported UNI networks Cannot: Manage Unichain accounts in Trezor Suite itself: Suite's Ethereum network list does not include UnichainTrezor's Ethereum page lists Unichain among about 45 supported Ethereum networks for the Safe models; older models and contract-interaction coverage were not reviewed. 333435 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Unichain yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Karst hard fork (OP Stack Upgrade 19) activated on Unichain
Unichain was among the OP Stack chains named for Karst. The upgrade brought a subset of Ethereum's Osaka changes to the L2, including a per-transaction gas cap of 16,777,216 gas and higher costs for some precompiles, added a governed mechanism for upgrading L2 system contracts, moved withdrawals to the Kona-based fault-proof program, and required node operators to run op-reth.
- Proposal:Optimism governance upgrade proposal
- Implementation:shipped in op-node and op-reth releases named in the notice
- Release:released before activation
- Activation:active on Unichain since 2026-07-08
Sources: Optimism Docs — Upgrade 19: Karst hard fork (external site) · Optimism Docs — Karst (external site) · Optimism (ethereum-optimism/superchain-registry) — Superchain Registry: mainnet/unichain.toml (external site)
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Unichain's official node setup switched from op-geth to op-reth
Uniswap's unichain-node repository replaced the op-geth execution client with op-reth, a month before Optimism ended op-geth support on 31 May 2026. The versions that meet Optimism's Karst minimums (op-node 1.19.2 and op-reth 2.3.3) were pinned on 15 July 2026, a week after Karst activated; before that the repository pinned op-node 1.19.0 and op-reth 2.3.1.
- Implementation:merged in the official node repository
- Release:released as unichain-node v0.6.0 on 2026-04-29; op-reth images published by OP Labs
- Activation:required for mainnet since Karst on 2026-07-08
Sources: Uniswap on GitHub — Uniswap/unichain-node commit history (external site) · Uniswap on GitHub — Unichain op-reth Migration (v0.6.0) (external site) · Uniswap on GitHub — Uniswap/unichain-node (external site) · Optimism Docs — End of Support for op-geth and op-program (external site) · Uniswap Labs (Unichain docs) — Set Up a Node (external site)
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Jovian hard fork (OP Stack Upgrade 17) activated on Unichain
Unichain was among the chains named for Jovian, which lets chain operators set a minimum base fee, adds a block limit on estimated Ethereum data use to curb spam during fee spikes, and updated the fault-proof virtual machine.
- Proposal:Optimism governance upgrade proposal
- Implementation:shipped in OP Stack releases
- Release:released before activation
- Activation:active on Unichain since 2025-12-02
Sources: Optimism Docs — Upgrade 17: Jovian hard fork (external site) · Optimism (ethereum-optimism/superchain-registry) — Superchain Registry: mainnet/unichain.toml (external site) · Uniswap Labs (Unichain public RPC) — Unichain Mainnet public RPC: latest block header (external site)
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UNIfication proposal to route Unichain sequencer fees to the UNI burn (executed 27 December 2025)
Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation posted the UNIfication proposal, which turns on Uniswap protocol fees and directs all Unichain sequencer fees, after Ethereum data costs and the 15% share paid to Optimism, into a collector contract on Unichain whose assets can be withdrawn only by burning UNI. Tally records the proposal as executed; its execution block dates to 27 December 2025.
- Proposal:passed onchain vote
- Implementation:executed on Ethereum
- Release:fee collector contracts deployed on Unichain
- Activation:executed 2025-12-27
Sources: Uniswap Labs Blog — UNIfication (external site) · Uniswap governance forum — UNIfication Proposal (external site) · Tally — UNIfication (Uniswap proposal 93) (external site) · Uniswap Labs (developer docs) — Uniswap Protocol Fees (external site) · Uniswap Labs (developer docs) — Protocol Fee Deployments (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Unichain through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The legal entity that operates the Unichain sequencer is not named in the reviewed docs; the profile says only where it runs.
- The Unichain Validation Network described in the whitepaper and launch post was not found live; whether it was shelved or delayed is not published.
- Whether public attestations for the trusted-execution block builder (listed as Flashtestations on unichain.org) are published and checkable by users was not verified.
- Unichain's docs are partly out of date: the node page still names op-geth, which cannot follow the Karst upgrade; the snapshot link returned 404; and the gas table lists a 30 million block gas limit and a fee-market elasticity of 6, while live block headers at review showed a 60 million limit, an elasticity of 12 and a minimum base fee of 500,000 wei. Why the limit changed was not found.
- L2BEAT's page still references the older Cannon fault-proof prestate and op-geth and warns that part of its information may be outdated; the Karst notice says the respected game type moved to the Kona-based variant.
- Optimism's notice targeted Unichain Sepolia interop for July 2026 and mainnet interop with OP Mainnet later that month, but neither registry file shows an activation and the Lagoon upgrade is listed as not scheduled.
- OP Labs is ending its own Flashblocks support in favour of Subblocks; whether this affects Unichain, which runs Flashblocks built with Flashbots, was not stated in any Unichain source.
- Identities of the Unichain multisig signers were not sourced.
- Unichain publishes no node hardware, disk or bandwidth figures, so the home-node posture is unknown.
- Optimism's active Upgrade 20 notice moves permissionless fault proofs to a new dispute-game format ahead of interop, but it names no chains or dates, so whether and when it reaches Unichain was not recorded.
- Ledger support is partial: Ledger Wallet code gates Unichain behind a feature switch that is off by default, the coin page returned 404, and the remote switch setting could not be read.
- Third-party bridges and messaging protocols named in Unichain's docs were not individually checked for current Unichain support.
- Liquidity depth and activity on Uniswap and other Unichain venues were not measured.
- Atomic-swap, reversible-transfer and recovery, light-client, channel and algorithmic-stablecoin surfaces on Unichain were not reviewed; no throughput claims were recorded.
- No rollups or channels anchored to Unichain were reviewed, so no scaling layers are listed.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Unichain Overview (external site)
- Network Information (external site)
- EVM Equivalence (external site)
- Bundles & Revert Protection (external site)
- Account Abstraction (external site)
- Submitting Transactions from L1 (external site)
- Contract Addresses (external site)
- Get Funds on Unichain (external site)
- Set Up a Node (external site)
- Unichain Node Snapshots (external site)
- Block Explorers (external site)
- Bridges (external site)
- Cross-Chain (external site)
- Unichain (whitepaper, October 2024) (external site)
- Unichain: The DeFi Chain (external site)
- Unichain Mainnet is Here (external site)
- Live on Unichain: Fair Transaction Ordering and MEV Protection (external site)
- Unichain Hits 200ms Sub-Blocks Inside Trusted Execution Environments (external site)
- Uniswap/unichain-node (external site)
- Superchain Registry: mainnet/unichain.toml (external site)
- Unichain (external site)
- Transaction finality (external site)
- Node Operator Overview (external site)
- Upgrade 19: Karst hard fork (external site)
- Uniswap v4 Deployments (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- CCTP supported chains and domains (external site)
- USDT0 Deployments (external site)
- USDT0 documentation overview (external site)
- Uniscan: Unichain Mainnet explorer (external site)
- Unichain Mainnet explorer (external site)
- Unichain latest blocks (API) (external site)
- Ethereum wallet (external site)
- Uniswap (UNI) wallet (external site)
- trezor-suite: Ethereum network configuration (external site)
- Supported crypto assets (external site)
- ledger-live: Unichain currency definition (external site)
- ledger-live: currencyUnichain feature flag (external site)
- ledger-live: coin-module loaders (list of networks Ledger Wallet can add) (external site)
- ledger-live: feature-flag defaults (a switch declared with no value is off) (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding