What was The Merge?

The Merge was the joining of the original execution layer of Ethereum (the Mainnet that has existed since genesis) with its new proof-of-stake consensus layer, the Beacon Chain. It eliminated the need for energy-intensive mining and instead enabled the the network to be secured using staked ETH. It was a truly exciting step in realizing the Ethereum vision—more scalability, security, and sustainability. Merge of Ethereum happened on Sep 15 2022

MakerDAO is an organization developing technology for borrowing, savings, and a stable cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain. It has created a protocol allowing anyone with ETH and a MetaMask wallet to lend themselves money in the form of a stablecoin called DAI. By locking up some ETH in MakerDAO’s smart contracts, users can create a certain amount of DAI–the more ETH locked up, the more DAI can be created. When users are ready to unlock their ETH, which serves as collateral for their DAI loan, they simply pay back the loan along with any fees.

MakerDAO has created a core layer of the decentralized financial system on Ethereum–what the kids these days are calling “DeFi”.

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One of a number of emerging DeFi cryptocurrencies, Aave is a decentralized lending system that allows users to lend, borrow and earn interest on crypto assets, all without middlemen.

Running on the Ethereum blockchain, Aave instead is a system of smart contracts that enables these assets to be managed by a distributed network of computers running its software.

This means Aave users do not need to trust a particular institution or person to manage their funds. They need only trust that its code will execute as written.

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Uniswap is a software running on Ethereum that seeks to incentivize a global network of users to maintain an exchange where cryptocurrencies can be bought and sold by traders.

One of an emerging number of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, Uniswap leverages multiple crypto assets, including its native UNI cryptocurrency, to provide a service similar to a traditional exchange. The difference is Uniswap has no one central operator or administrator.

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INTRODUCTION

Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as for the execution of decentralized smart contracts.

Ethereum was first described in a 2013 whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, along with other co-founders, secured funding for the project in an online public crowd sale in the summer of 2014. The project team managed to raise $18.3 million in Bitcoin, and Ethereum’s price in the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was $0.311, with over 60 million Ether sold. Taking Ethereum’s price now, this puts the return on investment (ROI) at an annualized rate of over 270%, essentially almost quadrupling your investment every year since the summer of 2014.

The Ethereum Foundation officially launched the blockchain on July 30, 2015, under the prototype codenamed “Frontier.” Since then, there has been several network updates — “Constantinople” on Feb. 28, 2019, “Istanbul” on Dec. 8, 2019, “Muir Glacier” on Jan. 2, 2020, “Berlin” on April 14, 2021, and most recently on Aug. 5, 2021, the “London” hard fork.

Ethereum’s own purported goal is to become a global platform for decentralized applications, allowing users from all over the world to write and run software that is resistant to censorship, downtime and fraud.

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Method

For solving these questions i compared 3 protocols deposits and withdraws stats in ==past 3 months== and looked at what did users do before and after ethereum merge and examined their behavior with their ETH.

I analyzed MakerDAO, Aave and Uniswap. For gathering the data that i wanted i used Flipside data.

1. For ==MakerDAO== data i used ==Ethereum.maker== database and from that i used 3 tables to do my magic:

==“ethereum.maker.ez_deposits”== and ==“ethereum.maker.ez_withdrawals”== and ==‘ethereum.core.fact_hourly_token_prices”==

2. For ==Aave== data i used ==Ethereum.aave== database and used these 3 tables:

==“ethereum.aave.ez_deposits”== , “==ethereum.core.fact_hourly_token_prices”== , “==ethereum.aave.ez_withdraws”==

3. For ==Uniswap== data i used ==uniswapv3== database from ethereum and used this specific table to grab the needed data : ==“ethereum.uniswapv3.ez_lp_actions”==

1- MAKERDAO

OBSERVATIONS

MakerDAO recorded its highest number of depositors in past 3 months on Sep 15th 2022(After Merge)

• Recently in September users are mostly withdrawing but after merge they did deposits more than withdraws
• On September 15th 2022, MakerDAO had the highest depositors and withdrawers and also highest number of deposit and withdraw transactions
• In past 3 months in overall number of deposits and withdrawals are almost the same
• On July 8th, MakerDAO recorded its highest ETH deposit and withdraw amount(10.8M)
• Deposit amount recorded more dips than withdraw amount and lowest deposit dip was on Aug 24th in past 3 months(1154)
• Withdraw amount recorded more highs than deposit amount and the highest withdraw high was on July 8th in past 3 months(5.44M)
• On 2 weeks before the merge, withdrawed ETH amount was more than deposited ETH amount and it seems like users thought ETH price would drop after merge and they were withdrawing their ETH

2 - AAVE

OBSERVATIONS

• Recently in September number of depositors and withdrawers and number of transactions increased and its peak was on Sep 15th 2022
• Sep 15th had 519 number of total depositors and withdrawers
• Users mostly depositing in Aave than withdrawing in past 3 months
• Depositors formed above 85% of users on Aave and thats why number of deposits are more than number of withdrawals
• Like MakerDAO, Daily Deposit and withdraw amount on Aave are almost the same on everyday
• Deposit amount suddenly peaked after the merge
• Withdrawed ETH amount was more than deposited ETH amount 2 weeks before the merge

3- UNISWAP

OBSERVATIONS

• In past 3 months number of depositors and withdrawers has been bullish
• In past 3 months depositors were always more than withdrawers except 1 day (September 14th)
• On Aug 13th and 14th, Uniswap had the highest number of depositors and withdrawers and number of deposit and withdraw transactions
• August was a busy and profitable month for Uniswap
• After Aug 21th, deposited and withdrawed eth amount dropped badly
• After merge, deposited and withdrawed eth amount dropped almost 60%
• before merge deposited eth amount was more than withdrawed eth amount, 2 weeks before merge this case was reversed and after merge deposited amount increased and it was more than withdrawed amount again.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

• Uniswap has more depositors and withdrawers than MakerDAO and Aave
• MakerDAO has more deposited and withdrawed ETH Amount than Uniswap and Aave
• Users mostly depositing than withdrawing after merge
• Users thought the eth price will drop after merge so they were withdrawing their assets but actually it didnt go that way so they deposited again after merge.

SPECIAL THANKS

Finally, I wanted to thank my colleague arpdavid091@gmail.com for helping me to make this bounty and to get all this information.