Crypto aggregator 1inch launched its Aqua protocol across 13 networks today. But the system alters exactly the outcomes providers aim for.
Finance providers can now secure assets directly inside their own wallets. They don’t have to lock funds away in external smart contracts anymore. Instead of dividing capital into smaller fragments to chase yields, providers back multiple positions simultaneously with a single balance. Users simply keep their tokens.
Virtual Allowances Replace Locked Pools
The public rollout arrives after a developer release date in November 2025. The team offered up to $100,000 in bug bounties during that early phase to help finalize the code. Now live across 13 chains, the protocol runs on an allowance framework.
Actual tokens stay entirely unmoving in self-custody. They only leave the wallet when a trade pulls them—a mechanic CoinDesk flagged as a direct push for capital efficiency. The update initiates an official expansion of decentralized finance capabilities. So users allocate identical funds across multiple strategies with one single approval.
Smart contracts track these permissions on-chain through a strategyHash registry.
Co-founder Sergej Kunz stated the launch is designed to overhaul decentralized trading—exactly like their original aggregator did in 2019. Fellow co-founder Anton Bukov added the architecture directly solves liquidity fragmentation for market makers. Their effective capital multiplies rapidly without hitting standard limits. You aren’t trapped in a rigid contract.
Capital Multiplying Threatens Standard Market Makers
Aqua decouples asset ownership from usage rights to create a system of strategy parallelism. Stablecoin pools and lending protocols can invoke the exact same capital simultaneously. Standard market makers force users to choose a single pool.
User wallets effectively operate as custodial AMMs under the new framework. The standard metric of Total Value Locked essentially shifts to Total Value Unlocked as funds stay liquid. And it completely removes withdrawal friction.