The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has released a working paper analyzing liquidity provision on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), specifically examining Uniswap v3. The study concludes that liquidity provision in DeFi is not as decentralized as it appears, as a few large institutional players dominate the market, holding approximately 80% of the total value locked. This concentration leaves retail liquidity providers (LPs) at a disadvantage, as they earn fewer trading fees and have lower investment returns, often resulting in losses on a risk-adjusted basis. The BIS suggests that the findings likely extend beyond Uniswap to other DEXs, emphasizing that the centralization tendencies observed in traditional finance also apply to DeFi. Despite these concerns, the BIS acknowledges that DeFi presents fewer regulatory and operational barriers than traditional finance. However, economist Gordon Liao argues that the disparity between sophisticated and retail LPs is not as significant as suggested, claiming that overall, DeFi liquidity provision is still comparatively better than in traditional finance.

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