1inch's Shared Liquidity Layer Aqua Goes Live
1inch opened Aqua, its shared DeFi liquidity layer, to all users after eight months of developer-only access. It is live on 13 EVM chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Robinhood Chain. Aqua is designed as a registry, not a pool: liquidity providers approve token balances and create positions that can be used for swaps, while tokens stay in the user’s wallet. When a trade matches a position, the protocol pulls only the needed tokens and returns proceeds and fees atomically. Approvals are per token and per chain and can be revoked. 1inch says swaps must be executed by verified counterparties, such as verified market makers or arbitrage bots, with checks enforced on-chain. It frames Aqua as risk-controlled, capital-efficient DeFi and says self-custody limits exposure to actual wallet holdings. The launch includes 10 million 1INCH in provider rewards plus 500,000 USDC via Merkl. Aqua has passed eight audits and is aimed at experienced users because fees, prices, and smart contract risks remain.
