About

1inch Network is a DeFi platform that aggregates liquidity from multiple DEXes to offer optimal swap rates with minimal slippage. Key features include intent-based trading for efficient, MEV-protected swaps, bridge-free cross-chain transfers, a secure mobile wallet, limit orders, P2P trading, and an AMM liquidity protocol. Additional tools encompass a developer API, portfolio tracker, and the 1inch Card for crypto spending with cashback.

History

Initial Conception The 1inch Network was founded in May 2019 by Sergez Kunz and Anton Bukov, two developers with backgrounds in smart contract security. Both Kunz and Bukov attended ETHNewYork Hackathon where they were experimenting with arbitrage bots and strategy. At the ETH NY hackathon the pair developed their first product, the 1inch Aggregation Protocol. Like its name suggests, the aggregation protocol is a DEX aggregator that searches for trades across multiple different markets, offering better rates than any individual exchange. The protocol initially sourced liquidity from Bancor, Kyber, and Uniswap. Since then, the 1inch Network has raised roughly $14.8 million in funding and grown to support nearly 80 different markets across multiple chains.

MooniSwap to Now In August of 2020, 1inch launched Mooniswap, otherwise known as the 1inch Liquidity Protocol, which is now obsolete. Mooniswap was dubbed a next-generation Automatic Market Maker (AMM) built to prevent front-running. The DEX introduced a five-minute price delay, creating a more competitive environment for arbitrageurs, forcing them to take trades at less profitable prices. Theoretically, this mechanism generates more income and lowers impermanent loss for liquidity providers.

Just a few months later, in November 2020, the 1inch Network launched 1inch V2. This upgrade primarily focused on updating the 1inch Aggregation Protocol, replacing the old routing algorithm with Pathfinder. Pathfinder – a new API – finds the best possible swap route at a faster speed than before. In addition, Pathfinder can split swaps between multiple liquidity sources and even use different market depths within the same liquidity source for a single swap, while taking gas consumption into account. 1inch V2 also widely expanded which protocols it supports from the initial three to over twenty different major liquidity protocols as well as enhance the user interface.

In December 2020, the 1INCH token was released along with the 1inch DAO. 1INCH holders can stake their tokens to participate in the 1inch Network’s DAO governance. Following the Fusion upgrade, users can stake 1INCH tokens to receive Unicorn Power (UP) and delegate their UP to any 1inch Fusion resolver in exchange for rewards.

The 1inch Limit Order Protocol was launched on June 10, 2021. Although 1inch already offered limit orders, this upgrade replaced the legacy solution forked from 0x with a more gas-efficient and customizable protocol. Besides cost-efficiency, this new protocol allows for dynamic pricing set by the user based on whatever information they find relevant and conditional execution, enabling users to specify arbitrary conditions for execution of their limit order.

In December 2022, the 1inch Fusion was released. It enables users to swap tokens without paying network fees. In addition, Fusion offers users extra MEV protection. All swaps in Fusion mode are executed by resolvers – professional market makers, who use the most sophisticated and efficient ways of protecting users’ swaps from MEV.

In July 2023, 1inch launched a developer portal. It provides APIs – the building blocks for creating fully functional dApps and wallets. These APIs allow a wide range of DeFi services such as real-time pricing, limit orders and portfolio overview to be seamlessly integrated into Web3 applications.