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What Is 1inch?

1inch (ticker 1INCH) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator. Instead of trading against a single liquidity pool, 1inch scans hundreds of liquidity sources across more than a dozen blockchains, splits a trade into pieces, and routes each piece wherever the price is best. The result is usually a better effective rate than any single DEX could offer, especially for larger trades. Over time the project has expanded from a pure aggregator into a broader DeFi suite that includes limit orders, intent-based swaps, a portfolio tracker, and a self-custodial mobile wallet.

1inch was founded in 2019 by Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov, two developers who built the first version of the aggregator at an ETHGlobal hackathon in New York. Kunz had a background in software engineering and security, while Bukov was an experienced smart-contract developer; the pair were known for live-streamed code audits before the hackathon win turned their prototype into a company. The project went on to raise funding from investors including Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and ParaFi Capital.

The core of the original product is the aggregation protocol and its routing engine, known as Pathfinder, which discovers the most efficient swap paths across DEXes such as Uniswap, Curve, and many others. Alongside it, the 1inch Limit Order Protocol lets users place orders at a specific price without paying fees to a centralized order book. In late 2022 the network introduced Fusion, an intent-based swap mode: instead of broadcasting a transaction, the user signs an order describing what they want, and professional market makers called resolvers compete in a Dutch auction to fill it. Fusion swaps are gasless for the user and resistant to front-running and sandwich attacks. Fusion+ extends the same model to cross-chain swaps without traditional bridges.

The 1INCH token launched on December 25, 2020, with a surprise Christmas airdrop to early users of the platform. The total supply is fixed at 1.5 billion tokens, originally allocated roughly as 30% to community incentives, 22.5% to core contributors, about 33% to backers across several funding rounds, and 14.5% to a network growth fund, with vesting spread over four years.

1INCH is the network's governance and staking token. Holders can lock tokens for between one month and two years to receive st1INCH and a voting weight called Unicorn Power; longer locks earn more power. Stakers delegate their Unicorn Power to Fusion resolvers, who need large delegations to qualify for filling orders and who share rewards with their delegators in return. Staked tokens also vote in the 1inch DAO, which governs protocol parameters and treasury spending through the network's governance portal.

The wider 1inch ecosystem includes the 1inch Wallet, a self-custodial mobile app for storing, swapping, and tracking tokens; a portfolio dashboard; a crypto debit card; and a developer portal whose APIs power swaps inside many third-party wallets and applications.

Getting Started With 1inch

Getting started with 1inch usually means using the aggregator to swap tokens, and optionally holding or staking the 1INCH token:

  1. Step 1: Set up a self-custodial wallet such as the 1inch Wallet or MetaMask and fund it with some ETH or another supported network's gas token.
  2. Step 2: Connect your wallet to the 1inch dApp and try a swap; the aggregator automatically finds the best route, and Fusion mode offers gasless, MEV-protected swaps.
  3. Step 3: Acquire 1INCH tokens on an exchange or directly through the aggregator itself.
  4. Step 4: Stake your 1INCH to receive st1INCH and Unicorn Power, delegate it to a resolver to earn rewards, and vote in 1inch DAO governance.

How to Get a 1inch Wallet?

1INCH is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum (with versions on other networks), so any wallet that supports Ethereum tokens can hold it.

1inch Wallet

The project's own self-custodial mobile wallet for iOS and Android. It has the aggregator, Fusion swaps, limit orders, and portfolio tracking built in, making it the most direct way to use the whole 1inch ecosystem from a phone.

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most widely used browser-extension wallet for Ethereum. It connects directly to the 1inch dApp, and many MetaMask swap routes are themselves powered by aggregators like 1inch.

Hardware Wallets

A Ledger or Trezor device can be paired with MetaMask or other interfaces to keep private keys offline, which is recommended for larger 1INCH holdings and long-term staking positions.

1inch Resources

How to Buy 1inch?

1INCH is widely available on both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

Centralized Exchanges

1INCH is listed on major exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit, and Gate, typically traded against USD or USDT.

Decentralized Exchanges

Fittingly, the easiest decentralized route is 1inch itself: connect a wallet to the 1inch dApp and the aggregator will find the best rate for 1INCH across Uniswap, Curve, and other liquidity sources. The token can also be bought directly on individual DEXes such as Uniswap.

Latest 1inch News

In March 2025, attackers exploited a deprecated Fusion v1 smart contract that some resolvers had never upgraded away from, draining roughly 5 million dollars from resolver funds; end users were not affected, and most of the money was returned after the attacker accepted a bug bounty deal. The incident pushed remaining resolvers onto current contract versions. In May 2026, the same attacker struck again, draining about 6.7 million dollars from TrustedVolumes, an independent market maker that fills 1inch Fusion orders. This time the flaw was in a custom contract built and run by TrustedVolumes itself, and 1inch stated that its own protocols, infrastructure, and user funds were not affected.

Beyond that, the network's recent focus has been expansion past the EVM world. 1inch launched on Solana in 2025 and followed up with native, bridge-free cross-chain swaps between Solana and a dozen or more EVM networks through Fusion+, available in the dApp, the 1inch Wallet, and the developer API. Because supported chains, staking parameters, and product features change frequently, the official website, blog, and help center are the best sources for the current state of the network.