Odaily Planet Daily reports that 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz stated that since its founding in 2019, 1inch has processed a cumulative trading volume of approximately $809 billion in token swaps, yet the company has yet to achieve profitability. Kunz believes that the current DeFi market size is still insufficient to support large-scale revenue generation through value extraction; instead of pursuing short-term profits, 1inch remains focused on building infrastructure.
Kunz revealed that 1inch is addressing DeFi liquidity fragmentation through its newly launched shared liquidity protocol, Aqua. A study commissioned by 1inch and conducted by Dune shows that, in the first half of 2026, approximately 85% of concentrated liquidity on major decentralized exchanges was underutilized, with about $1.6 billion out of $1.84 billion in tracked liquidity remaining underused, resulting in an estimated $150 million in annual fee revenue going uncaptured.
Aqua allows liquidity providers to support multiple trading pairs simultaneously using their wallet balances, without depositing assets into liquidity pools, with trade settlement handled by compliance-vetted market makers. On its launch day, approximately $25 million in capital was deployed, alongside incentives of 10 million 1INCH and 500,000 USDC.
Currently, 1inch has partnered with major platforms such as Coinbase, and Robinhood has listed it as a Robinhood Chain partner. Kunz stated that 1inch prefers to first build out infrastructure and then pursue commercialization opportunities once traditional finance and larger capital flows enter the space.