Deep Dive
1. Aqua Protocol Developer Launch (17 November 2025)
Overview: This is a foundational upgrade introducing a shared liquidity engine. It lets users' funds in their own wallets be used by multiple automated strategies at once, without moving assets into a smart contract.
Aqua transforms each wallet into a self-custodial automated market maker (AMM). Developers can now access the SDK and libraries on GitHub to build strategies where capital is never locked but can be accessed atomically by different applications based on custom rules. A public front end is planned for Q1 2026.
What this means: This is bullish for 1INCH because it could massively improve capital efficiency for liquidity providers. Users could earn yield from multiple sources simultaneously with the same tokens, leading to deeper liquidity and better swap rates across the ecosystem.
(1inch)
2. Gasless Swaps via Rewardy Integration (22 January 2026)
Overview: This integration simplifies the user experience by removing a major barrier to entry: the need to hold separate gas tokens for each blockchain.
By embedding the 1inch Swap API into Rewardy Wallet and leveraging account abstraction (EIP-7702), users can now execute swaps across five chains (Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism) and pay transaction fees entirely in Rewardy's RWD token.
What this means: This is bullish for 1INCH because it makes DeFi swaps significantly easier and more accessible for mainstream users. It reduces failed transactions and complexity, potentially driving higher swap volume through 1inch's aggregation engine.
(Yahoo Finance)
3. Pathfinder Algorithm Upgrade (10 June 2025)
Overview: This core infrastructure update refined the protocol's price routing engine to find more optimal trade paths.
The upgraded Pathfinder algorithm scans liquidity sources more effectively, which can split orders across multiple decentralized exchanges to achieve better final rates for users while also consuming less network gas.
What this means: This is bullish for 1INCH because it directly improves the core value proposition—getting users the best possible swap rate. Cheaper and better-executed trades improve user retention and attract more volume.
(Phemex)
4. AI-Powered Security Integration (23 December 2025)
Overview: This update focuses on pre-emptively strengthening smart contract security by integrating third-party AI audit tools.
1inch integrated SavantChat's multi-agent AI system to perform automated vulnerability scans on 1inch-related smart contracts. This aims to identify potential security issues faster and at a lower cost than traditional manual audits.
What this means: This is bullish for 1INCH because it enhances the protocol's security posture and user trust. Proactively preventing exploits protects user funds and strengthens the network's reliability, which is critical for institutional adoption.
(CoinMarketCap)
Conclusion
1inch's development trajectory is clearly oriented toward solving DeFi's core challenges: capital inefficiency, user experience complexity, and security. The recent codebase updates, from the innovative Aqua protocol to seamless gasless swaps, demonstrate a focused effort to improve infrastructure for both developers and end-users. Will the launch of Aqua's public front end in Q1 2026 catalyze the next wave of liquidity innovation?