According to Cointelegraph, decentralized exchange PancakeSwap has reported a cumulative trading volume of $836 billion and a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $1.72 billion over its four years of operation. As of September 20, PancakeSwap's TVL stood at $1.72 billion, a significant decrease from its all-time high of $7.16 billion on May 4, 2021, as per DefiLlama. The TVL was about $2.42 billion on March 30 and has been declining since then.

The exchange, which operates on an automated market maker (AMM) model, serves over 43 million cumulative unique addresses. PancakeSwap has announced the upcoming release of PancakeSwap v4, a major update aimed at enhancing user experience and scalability. The update is expected to address shortcomings in existing AMMs, such as inflexible pricing models, limited trading features compared to centralized exchanges, impermanent loss for liquidity providers, and high on-chain gas fees. Chef Kids, head of PancakeSwap, stated that the new version would offer dynamic fee tiers, advanced trading tools, and reduced gas fees, thereby improving the overall trading experience and lowering costs.

PancakeSwap has also released its v4 white paper this year and launched a $500,000 developer program to attract top-tier builders ahead of the official v4 launch. As part of this initiative, PancakeSwap is hosting a v4 Hookathon on Dorahacks, with submissions open until September 30. Launched in 2020, PancakeSwap is available across nine chains, including BNB Chain, Ethereum, Aptos, Polygon zkEVM, ZKsync Era, Arbitrum One, Linea, Base, and opBNB.

Chef Kids mentioned that PancakeSwap plans to expand its decentralized exchange to more chains. By focusing on product-market fit, PancakeSwap aims to address the lack of functionality and user experience in many DEXs. Improving accessibility and trading efficiency on emerging networks could help PancakeSwap fill a crucial market gap.