1inch launches the non-custodial shared liquidity layer “1inch Aqua”: a single balance supports multiple positions, addressing the pain point of idle funds

According to the latest announcement on 1inch’s official blog, 1inch officially launched its non-custodial shared liquidity layer called “1inch Aqua” today (the 28th). The protocol aims to let users use the same wallet balance while supporting multiple liquidity positions, and the tokens will never leave the user’s wallet before an actual trade occurs, fully addressing DeFi’s long-standing issues of idle capital and JIT attack pain points.
(Background: 1inch co-founder announced his departure—he was fired in November last year and launched a new initiative with 50% equity)
(Additional background: 1inch investor sold orders totaling $1.83 million triggered a 7% drop! Liquidity for meme coins sets off an alert)

Table of contents

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• DeFi liquidity pain points: idle capital and JIT attacks
• Aqua core mechanism: token remains in the wallet, atomic settlement
• Supports 13 EVM chains; official says DeFi needs more useful liquidity

In today’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, liquidity providers (LPs) often face the dilemma of low capital efficiency. On July 28 in Taipei time, the team behind the well-known DEX aggregator 1inch, led by Vladimir Kozlov, published its latest article announcing the official launch of “1inch Aqua”—a non-custodial shared liquidity layer designed to overturn existing liquidity paradigms.

DeFi liquidity pain points: idle capital and JIT attacks

In the announcement, the 1inch team directly pointed to the core pain points of the current DeFi liquidity market. First, although many liquidity pools have extremely high total value locked (TVL), most tokens remain idle for most of the time, and the liquidity that truly works is fairly limited. In addition, LPs must spread limited funds across different protocols, trading pairs, and price ranges, leading to extremely low overall capital utilization.

Worse, there are security and yield issues stemming from “JIT (Just-in-Time) attacks.” Currently, LPs are highly susceptible to targeting by MEV bots. These bots insert and then immediately withdraw liquidity around the occurrence of large trades, taking the fees that should belong to long-term LPs; in the worst case, they can cause LPs to lose up to 44% of their fee income. At the same time, traditional mechanisms require tokens to be deposited into smart contracts, stripping users of absolute control over their assets.

Aqua core mechanism: token stays in the wallet, atomic transaction settlement

To solve the above issues, 1inch Aqua proposed a new solution for “Shared Liquidity.” Users only need to connect their wallet to the protocol and approve the balance of specific tokens; they can then freely create multiple liquidity positions (including full-range, concentrated liquidity, or pegged-style positions). The most groundbreaking design is that tokens are never deposited into any contract and always remain in the user’s wallet.

When exchange orders that meet the criteria appear in the market, the Aqua protocol uses an atomic transaction to directly pull the required tokens from the user’s wallet, and instantly pushes the swapped tokens and fees back into the user’s wallet. This mechanism not only allows the same balance to support multiple positions, but also blocks the possibility of JIT bots inserting liquidity to steal fees, because each position has only a single owner.

Supports 13 EVM chains; official: DeFi needs more useful liquidity

On safety and usability, 1inch Aqua emphasizes that all swaps are executed by verified market makers or arbitrage bots, and the actual risk exposure is limited to the actual balances in the user’s wallet (if the balance is insufficient, the protocol will not be triggered). Users can also open or close positions at any time in a permissionless manner. The protocol has passed strict audits by eight independent security teams, including Hexens and OpenZeppelin.

After opening testing to developers starting in November 2025, 1inch Aqua is now officially available to all users and supports 13 EVM-compatible chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Robinhood Chain. At the end of the official announcement, 1inch highlighted: “DeFi doesn’t need ‘more’ liquidity—it needs ‘more useful, risk-controlled’ liquidity.”