1inch is a decentralised-exchange (DEX) aggregator: instead of operating its own liquidity pools like Uniswap, it searches multiple DEXs at once and routes token swaps along the most favourable path. Think of it as the flight-comparison website of the crypto world — just as a traveller checks several airlines in a single search, a 1inch user gets the best available price across the entire decentralised-trading landscape in one go.
Origin story
The project began at an Ethereum hackathon in New York in 2019, where Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov first met. The two had previously crossed paths through a YouTube live-stream run by Kunz, and their hackathon partnership quickly bore fruit: the duo won prizes at both the Singapore and ETHGlobal competitions, validating the concept. Crucially, Kunz had already built price-comparison services before entering crypto — experience widely credited with giving him the instinct to apply the same logic to decentralised finance.
1inch launched formally in August 2020. That December it issued its governance token, 1INCH, and converted to a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) structure. The protocol has since expanded well beyond Ethereum, now supporting BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and several other networks.
What the token actually does
1INCH is a governance token: holders vote through the DAO on protocol parameters and policy changes. The engine underneath is an algorithm called Pathfinder, which analyses liquidity and fees across multiple DEXs in real time and, where advantageous, splits a single trade across several routes simultaneously — reducing slippage and securing a better execution price. The protocol also offers a "Fusion" mode, which allows users to place time-weighted orders without paying gas fees; competing market-makers fill those orders, a structure designed to protect users from front-running and other forms of MEV (maximal extractable value) exploitation.
Recent developments and complications
The most closely watched development is 1inch's integration with Robinhood Chain. On 1st July, the American retail brokerage Robinhood launched an Ethereum layer-2 network — "Robinhood Chain" — built for trading tokenised real-world assets (RWAs), and 1inch was named a launch partner. From day one, 1inch committed to supporting Robinhood's tokenised equities and exchange-traded products through its app, wallet, and swap API. The chain's testnet reportedly processed more than $2bn in RWA transfer volume ahead of launch.
Early live data have, however, told a more complicated story. Tokenised stock trading has accounted for only around 4% of on-chain activity in the weeks since launch; meme-like assets — including a token linked to GameStop — have emerged as the network's dominant use case. A chain designed as RWA infrastructure is, at least for now, being used primarily for speculative trading.
The launch day itself illustrated just how crowded the field is becoming. Uniswap deployed its own automated market-maker on Robinhood Chain on the same day to supply liquidity; Chainlink's oracle network and BitGo's custody technology were also deeply integrated into the chain. In other words, several protocols previously covered in this series — Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK), and Ondo (ONDO) — now find themselves competing or collaborating with 1inch on the very same chain. This convergence reflects a broader trend: as the boundary between traditional finance and decentralised finance blurs, liquidity-infrastructure protocols are jockeying intensely for position.
Assessment
Investment risk: ★★★☆☆ — As an infrastructure token, 1INCH tends to be less volatile than major cryptocurrencies, though it remains sensitive to shifts in overall DeFi liquidity conditions.
Technical maturity: ★★★★☆ — The Pathfinder routing algorithm and MEV-protection mechanisms have been battle-tested over several years.
Ecosystem scalability: ★★★★☆ — Multi-chain support, now extended into the RWA space via the Robinhood Chain partnership, points to a broad addressable market.
Overall interest: ★★★☆☆ — 1inch is the kind of protocol that builds its presence quietly through infrastructure rather than price fireworks — useful to know, if rarely headline-grabbing.