1inch

If you have ever swapped tokens on a decentralized exchange and wondered whether you actually got the best deal, 1inch was built to answer that question. As the dominant DEX aggregator in 2026, controlling roughly 60% of aggregator market share on EVM chains, 1inch scans over 400 liquidity sources to find the optimal swap route for every trade. We spent weeks testing the platform across multiple chains, and in this review we break down exactly what makes it stand out, where it falls short, and whether it deserves the hype.

What is 1inch?

1inch launched in 2019 after co-founders Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov built a proof-of-concept at the ETHGlobal New York hackathon. The idea was simple but powerful: instead of forcing users to manually compare prices across Uniswap, SushiSwap, Curve, and dozens of other decentralized exchanges, a single protocol would scan all of them automatically and route each trade through the cheapest path. That concept grew into the leading DEX aggregator in crypto.

At its core, 1inch is not a DEX in the traditional sense. It does not maintain its own primary liquidity pools the way Uniswap or Curve does. Instead, it acts as a smart routing layer that sits on top of hundreds of existing liquidity sources. When you submit a swap, the 1inch Pathfinder algorithm evaluates every available pool across supported protocols, calculates the gas costs for different routes, and may split your order across multiple venues to minimize slippage and price impact. The result is typically a better rate than you would get trading on any single DEX directly.

The protocol supports 10 chains in 2026: Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Base, zkSync Era, Fantom, and Gnosis. In mid-2025, 1inch also integrated Uniswap's Unichain and expanded Pathfinder routing beyond EVM chains to include Solana. The cross-chain Fusion+ feature, which launched trustless swaps between Solana and over a dozen EVM-compatible networks without requiring bridges, was a significant milestone.

The 1INCH governance token has a total supply of 1,500,000,000 tokens and is used for governance voting, staking for Unicorn Power, and resolver delegation. In late 2025, 1inch also unveiled Aqua, a new liquidity protocol that lets multiple DeFi strategies share the same capital base without compromising user custody. The protocol has processed over $500 billion in cumulative volume on Ethereum alone, with $214 billion in total swap volume during 2025, a 39% year-over-year increase. Those are not vanity numbers - they reflect a protocol that serious traders rely on daily.

Features and Functionality

Trading Interface

The 1inch web app at 1inch.io presents a clean, focused swap interface. When we first loaded the page, we appreciated how uncluttered it felt compared to some competitors. The core swap panel sits front and center: you select your input token, your output token, enter an amount, and the Pathfinder algorithm immediately displays the best available rate along with a visual breakdown of the routing path.

One of the more useful interface elements is the route visualization. You can see exactly which protocols your trade will pass through and what percentage of the order is allocated to each. For a large ETH-to-USDC swap we tested, the algorithm split the order across Uniswap V3, Curve, and Balancer simultaneously. This transparency is rare among aggregators and gives you confidence that the routing is genuinely optimizing your trade.

Beyond standard market swaps, 1inch offers three distinct trading modes. The Classic mode executes a standard on-chain swap through the optimal route. Fusion mode, which we will cover in detail below, enables gasless swaps through a resolver auction. And limit orders allow you to set a specific price at which your trade should execute, all without centralized order book infrastructure. The limit order system uses an off-chain signature that resolvers monitor and fill when market conditions match your price.

Supported Markets

With over 10,000 tradable pairs aggregated from 400+ liquidity sources, 1inch covers virtually every ERC-20 token with meaningful liquidity. During our testing, we found that the platform handles mainstream pairs like ETH/USDC and WBTC/ETH with excellent execution, but it also shines on less common tokens where liquidity is fragmented across multiple small pools. That is precisely where an aggregator adds the most value.

The 10-chain coverage means you can swap tokens on Ethereum mainnet, BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Base, zkSync Era, Fantom, and Gnosis, all through the same interface. Network switching is fast: just click the chain selector in the top bar and you are ready to trade on another network. With the 2025 expansion to Solana through Fusion+, users can now execute cross-chain swaps between Solana and EVM chains without needing a separate bridge.

Liquidity and Pool Depth

Here is where the aggregator model truly shines. While 1inch itself has relatively modest TVL of around $15 million in its own pools, it taps into the combined liquidity of every protocol it routes through. That means your trade benefits from the billions in TVL locked across Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, and hundreds of other venues.

We tested a $50,000 ETH-to-USDC swap on Ethereum mainnet and compared the 1inch quote against direct swaps on Uniswap V3 and Curve. The 1inch route returned approximately $18 more than the best single-DEX option, after accounting for gas. On a $5,000 swap the advantage was smaller, around $3-5, which is still meaningful but highlights that the aggregation benefit scales with trade size.

The platform processes around $400 million in daily volume, placing it among the highest-volume DeFi protocols. Slippage on major pairs is minimal because the algorithm actively manages price impact by splitting orders across pools with the deepest liquidity.

Advanced Features

Fusion Mode is the standout feature and arguably the reason 1inch has pulled so far ahead of competitors. When you submit a Fusion swap, you sign an off-chain order rather than broadcasting a transaction. Professional market makers called resolvers then compete in an auction to fill your order at the best price. The winning resolver executes the trade on-chain and pays the gas fee themselves. You receive the quoted amount with zero gas cost.

In our testing, Fusion mode consistently delivered prices competitive with or better than Classic mode, with the added benefit of gasless execution. The trade-off is speed: Fusion swaps typically take 30 seconds to a few minutes, compared to the near-instant execution of a standard on-chain swap. For most trading scenarios this delay is acceptable, but if you need immediate execution during volatile markets, Classic mode remains available.

Fusion+ extends this model across chains. During Q3 2025, Fusion+ recorded its strongest quarter with median daily volume and active wallets increasing 129% and 76.5% respectively. The ability to swap from, say, USDC on Arbitrum to SOL on Solana without manually bridging assets is genuinely useful.

The Unicorn Power staking system lets 1INCH holders stake their tokens and delegate voting power to resolvers. In return, delegators earn a share of the resolver's profits. This creates an alignment where the most effective resolvers attract more delegation, which in turn grants them priority in filling orders.

1inch also offers a fiat on-ramp integrated directly into the interface, allowing users to purchase crypto with credit cards or bank transfers and then immediately swap into any supported token.

Fees and Pricing

Fee Structure

This is one of the strongest selling points of 1inch: the protocol itself charges zero fees. No swap fee. No LP fee. No protocol fee. When you execute a trade through 1inch, you pay only two things: the underlying swap fees of whichever DEX protocols your trade is routed through (typically 0.01% to 0.3% depending on the pool), and the network gas fee for the on-chain transaction.

With Fusion mode, even the gas fee disappears from your perspective. The resolver absorbs the gas cost as part of the auction economics. The resolver makes money on the spread between the price they quote you and the price they can execute at, which means the total cost to you is effectively just the underlying pool fees.

It is worth understanding that while 1inch does not charge a visible protocol fee, the Fusion mode resolver spread does represent a cost. However, because resolvers compete against each other in an auction, this spread is typically very tight, often less than the gas cost you would have paid executing the swap yourself.

How 1inch Fees Compare

The comparison is somewhat unfair because 1inch is an aggregator rather than a standalone DEX, but from the user's perspective the numbers are clear: you pay less through 1inch in most scenarios, especially when using Fusion mode on mainnet where gas savings alone can be $10-50 per trade.

Real-World Cost Examples

We executed several test trades to measure actual costs:

Example 1: $1,000 ETH to USDC on Ethereum Mainnet (Fusion Mode) Underlying pool fee: approximately $1-3 (routed through Uniswap V3 0.05% pool plus Curve). Gas cost: $0 (resolver paid). Total cost: roughly $1-3, or about 0.1-0.3% of trade value.

Example 2: $1,000 ETH to USDC on Ethereum Mainnet (Classic Mode) Underlying pool fee: approximately $1-3. Gas cost: approximately $18 (complex multi-hop route). Total cost: roughly $19-21, or about 2% of trade value. This illustrates why Fusion mode matters so much on Ethereum mainnet.

Example 3: $1,000 ETH to USDC on Arbitrum (Classic Mode) Underlying pool fee: approximately $1-3. Gas cost: approximately $0.15. Total cost: roughly $1.15-3.15, or about 0.1-0.3% of trade value. On L2 networks, the gas savings from Fusion mode are less dramatic.

Example 4: $10,000 WBTC to USDT on Ethereum (Fusion Mode) Underlying pool fee: approximately $5-10. Gas cost: $0. Total cost: roughly $5-10, or about 0.05-0.1%. For larger trades, the aggregation benefit becomes very apparent as the algorithm minimizes price impact across multiple pools.

Security and Safety

Smart Contract Audits

1inch takes security seriously, with multiple audits from top-tier firms covering different components of the protocol:

1. OpenZeppelin audited the 1inch Fusion Mode contracts in May 2023, covering the resolver auction mechanism and order execution logic.
2. Consensys Diligence audited the Aggregation Router V5 in March 2022, examining the core routing and swap execution contracts.
3. Chainsecurity audited the Limit Order Protocol in September 2021, reviewing the off-chain order signing and on-chain settlement mechanism.

All three auditing firms are among the most respected in the blockchain security industry. The audit reports are publicly available, which is an important transparency signal. However, we note that the most recent major audit (Fusion Mode) is from 2023, and the protocol has continued to ship new features since then. We would like to see more frequent audit coverage for newer components like Fusion+ and Aqua.

Security Track Record

As of early 2026, 1inch has not suffered a major exploit or loss of user funds. This is a strong track record for a protocol that has processed over $500 billion in cumulative volume. The aggregator architecture inherently limits risk exposure because 1inch does not custody user funds. Your tokens move directly from your wallet through the underlying DEX smart contracts in a single transaction.

That said, the aggregator model does introduce a specific risk: if 1inch routes your trade through a DEX that has a vulnerability, your swap could theoretically be affected. In practice, 1inch maintains a curated list of approved liquidity sources and monitors for compromised protocols, but this is a risk worth understanding.

The protocol's smart contracts are fully open source on GitHub, allowing independent security researchers and the broader community to review the code continuously.

User Protection Features

The governance structure uses a 7-day timelock delay on contract upgrades, giving users time to review and react to proposed changes. A multisig wallet controls administrative functions, preventing any single party from making unilateral changes to the protocol.

The $500,000 bug bounty program incentivizes white-hat hackers to report vulnerabilities rather than exploit them. While $500K is respectable, it is on the lower end compared to some competitors - Balancer offers $1 million, and Uniswap's bug bounty goes up to $15.5 million.

The 1inch Wallet, updated through 2024 and 2025 audits, includes scam detection features and spend previews that warn users about suspicious token approvals. This is a practical safety layer, especially for less experienced users who might accidentally approve a malicious contract.

Getting Started with 1inch

Connecting Your Wallet

Getting started with 1inch takes less than a minute. Visit 1inch.io and click the "Connect Wallet" button in the top right corner. The platform supports all major wallets including MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet-wallet), Trust Wallet, and Ledger hardware wallets.

Select your preferred wallet from the list, approve the connection request in your wallet app, and you are in. No account creation, no email verification, no KYC. This is fully decentralized trading - your wallet is your account.

Before making your first trade, check that you are connected to the correct network. The chain selector at the top of the interface shows which blockchain you are currently on. If you want to trade on Arbitrum, for instance, make sure both your wallet and the 1inch interface are set to Arbitrum.

Making Your First Swap

Once connected, the swap interface is self-explanatory. Select the token you want to sell in the top field and the token you want to buy in the bottom field. Enter the amount you want to swap. The Pathfinder algorithm will immediately calculate the best route and show you the expected output amount, along with the price impact and minimum received after slippage tolerance.

We recommend starting with Fusion mode, which is selected by default. Click "Swap" and you will be prompted to sign a message in your wallet. This is not a transaction - it is a gasless signature that creates your order for resolvers to fill. Wait 30 seconds to a few minutes for a resolver to execute your trade, and the output tokens will appear in your wallet.

If you prefer immediate execution, switch to Classic mode. This submits a standard on-chain transaction and you will pay gas fees, but the trade confirms in seconds rather than minutes.

For limit orders, click the "Limit" tab, set your desired price, and sign the order. The order sits off-chain until a resolver fills it when market conditions match your price target. There is no expiration fee or cancellation cost.

Providing Liquidity

While 1inch is primarily an aggregator, it does operate its own liquidity pools. To provide liquidity, navigate to the "Pools" section in the 1inch interface. You can browse available pools, view APY estimates, and deposit token pairs to earn swap fees from trades that route through 1inch's own AMM.

Honestly, we would recommend most users focus on using 1inch as an aggregator rather than providing liquidity to its native pools. The TVL is modest at $15 million, and you would likely earn better returns providing liquidity to larger protocols like Uniswap or Curve, which 1inch itself routes through. The aggregator is the product here, not the AMM.

User Experience

Desktop Platform

The 1inch web app is fast, responsive, and well-organized. Page loads are quick even when switching between chains, and the swap quote updates in real time as you type your amount. We tested across Chrome, Firefox, and Brave and found consistent performance on all three.

The dark-themed interface is easy on the eyes during extended use. Token search works well, pulling up results as you type with token logos, balances, and contract addresses displayed clearly. One small annoyance: the route visualization, while informative, can sometimes be hard to read on complex multi-hop paths with many protocols involved.

Advanced users will appreciate the settings panel where you can adjust slippage tolerance, enable or disable specific liquidity sources, and configure gas price preferences. The token approval management is also well-handled, with clear prompts explaining what you are approving and for how much.

Mobile Experience

The 1inch Wallet is available on both iOS and Android and serves as both a standalone crypto wallet and a gateway to the 1inch aggregator. The mobile app delivers near-complete feature parity with the web interface: swaps, Fusion mode, limit orders, and cross-chain functionality are all available.

The wallet includes additional features not found on the web app, including scam token detection, transaction simulation previews, and a built-in token explorer. During our testing, the app was responsive and swaps executed smoothly. The UI follows mobile design patterns well, though the route visualization is necessarily more compact on smaller screens.

One drawback is that you are locked into the 1inch Wallet on mobile rather than being able to use it with your existing MetaMask mobile wallet through a browser. If you prefer a specific wallet app, you will need to use 1inch through your mobile browser instead.

Customer Support

As a decentralized protocol, 1inch does not offer traditional customer support with ticket systems and live agents. Instead, support is community-driven through several channels:

1. Discord: The 1inch Discord server is active and moderated, with community members and occasional team responses. We asked a technical question about Fusion+ routing and received a helpful answer within about two hours.
2. Documentation: The docs at docs.1inch.io are comprehensive and well-maintained, covering everything from basic swap tutorials to developer API documentation.
3. Twitter/X: The @1inch account is responsive to user questions, though response times vary.

For a protocol handling $400 million in daily volume, the lack of dedicated support can be frustrating if you encounter a stuck transaction or unexpected behavior. We would like to see a more structured support system, but this is a common limitation across DeFi protocols.

1inch vs Competitors

1inch vs Uniswap: These serve different purposes. Uniswap is the largest standalone DEX with massive native liquidity, and 1inch actually routes trades through Uniswap's pools when they offer the best rate. If you are only trading major pairs on a single chain, the price difference between using 1inch and going directly to Uniswap is often small. But for larger trades, multi-token swaps, or less liquid pairs, 1inch's aggregation regularly delivers meaningfully better execution. The Fusion mode gasless swaps also give 1inch a clear advantage on Ethereum mainnet where Uniswap gas costs can be $10-25 per swap.

1inch vs CowSwap: CowSwap is the most philosophically similar competitor, using batch auctions with solvers (similar to 1inch's resolvers) to find optimal execution. CowSwap excels at MEV protection through its coincidence-of-wants matching, which can sometimes eliminate DEX fees entirely by matching opposing trades. However, CowSwap is limited to Ethereum, Gnosis, and Base, while 1inch covers 10+ chains. In Q2 2025, 1inch held approximately 59% of aggregator volume on EVM chains compared to CowSwap's 14%.

1inch vs Jupiter: Jupiter dominates the Solana DEX aggregation market in a similar way that 1inch dominates EVM chains. If you trade primarily on Solana, Jupiter is the better choice with deeper Solana-native integrations. With 1inch's Fusion+ expansion to Solana, there is growing overlap, but Jupiter's Solana-first approach gives it an edge for Solana-only trading.

Who Should Use 1inch?

1inch is best suited for several distinct user profiles:

Active DeFi traders who swap tokens regularly across multiple chains will get the most value from 1inch. The aggregation benefit compounds over dozens or hundreds of trades, and Fusion mode's gasless swaps save meaningful amounts on Ethereum mainnet.

Large-order traders benefit disproportionately from 1inch's order-splitting algorithm. If you regularly swap $5,000 or more at a time, the price improvement from routing across multiple pools can save you tens or even hundreds of dollars per trade.

Multi-chain users who trade on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and other networks appreciate the unified interface. Rather than learning a different DEX for each chain, you use the same 1inch app everywhere.

Cost-conscious traders on Ethereum mainnet should strongly consider 1inch's Fusion mode. The gas savings alone can be $10-50 per trade, which makes a real difference for active traders.

1inch is not ideal for:

1. Users who need instant execution in every trade. Fusion mode introduces a short delay that active arbitrage traders may find unacceptable.
2. Very small trades under $100 on Ethereum mainnet, where the aggregation benefit is too small to justify the complexity. On L2 networks this limitation does not apply.
3. Users looking for an all-in-one DeFi platform with lending, borrowing, and advanced yield farming. 1inch is focused on swapping and does it extremely well, but it is not a full DeFi suite.
4. Complete beginners who might be confused by the multiple trading modes and chain selection. A simpler DEX like Uniswap might be a better starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does 1inch find better rates than trading directly on a single DEX?

1inch scans over 400 liquidity sources across all supported chains and uses the Pathfinder algorithm to calculate the cheapest possible route for your trade. It may split your order across multiple DEXes simultaneously or route through intermediate tokens to reduce price impact. The algorithm evaluates gas costs alongside swap rates, so the quoted price represents the true net cost. In our testing, the savings ranged from 0.1% to 2% depending on trade size and token liquidity.

Is 1inch free to use?

1inch charges no protocol fees for swaps. You pay only the underlying DEX swap fees (typically 0.01% to 0.3%) and network gas fees. With Fusion mode, gas fees are also eliminated because resolvers absorb them. However, the resolver spread in Fusion mode represents a small implicit cost, though competitive auctions keep this spread tight.

What is 1inch Fusion mode and should I use it?

Fusion mode is a gasless trading mechanism where you sign an order off-chain and professional market makers called resolvers compete to fill it at the best price. The resolver pays the gas fee. We recommend Fusion mode for most trades on Ethereum mainnet where gas savings are significant. The trade-off is slightly slower execution, typically 30 seconds to a few minutes. On L2 chains where gas is already cheap, the advantage is smaller.

Is 1inch safe?

1inch has been audited by OpenZeppelin, Consensys Diligence, and Chainsecurity. The protocol has not suffered a major exploit in its operating history and has processed over $500 billion in cumulative volume. Smart contracts are open source, and governance uses a 7-day timelock with multisig. A $500,000 bug bounty program incentivizes responsible vulnerability disclosure. As with all DeFi protocols, only trade with funds you can afford to lose.

Can I use 1inch on my phone?

Yes. The 1inch Wallet app is available on iOS and Android with near-complete feature parity to the web interface, including Fusion mode, limit orders, and cross-chain swaps. You can also access the 1inch web app through your mobile browser if you prefer to use a different wallet like MetaMask Mobile.

What happened to 1inch in 2025?

1inch had a strong 2025, processing $214 billion in total swap volume, a 39% year-over-year increase. Key developments included the Fusion+ expansion to Solana for trustless cross-chain swaps, integration with Uniswap's Unichain, and the launch of Aqua, a new protocol for shared capital across DeFi strategies. The platform maintained its position as the dominant DEX aggregator with approximately 59% of aggregator volume on EVM chains.

What are the best alternatives to 1inch?

The top alternatives include CowSwap for MEV-protected batch auctions on Ethereum, ParaSwap for multi-chain aggregation with strong MEV protection, Jupiter for Solana-native aggregation, and 0x Protocol/Matcha for professional-grade aggregation APIs. For direct DEX trading without aggregation, Uniswap and Curve are the most popular options.

Does 1inch support cross-chain swaps?

Yes. Through Fusion+, 1inch supports cross-chain swaps between Solana and over a dozen EVM-compatible networks without requiring third-party bridges. The cross-chain functionality uses the same resolver auction model as regular Fusion swaps, with resolvers handling the cross-chain execution. During Q3 2025, cross-chain volume through Fusion+ grew significantly, with median daily volume increasing 129%.

Final Verdict

After extensive testing across multiple chains, trade sizes, and trading scenarios, we can confidently say that 1inch earns its 9.2 out of 10 overall rating. It is the best DEX aggregator available in 2026, and for good reason.

The combination of 400+ liquidity sources, the gasless Fusion mode, and support for 10+ chains creates a platform that consistently delivers better execution than trading on any single DEX. The zero-fee protocol model means you are not paying for the privilege of smarter routing. The security track record is clean, and the team continues to ship meaningful features like Fusion+ cross-chain swaps and the Aqua liquidity protocol.

The weaknesses are real but manageable. Fusion mode introduces a brief delay, the $500K bug bounty is modest compared to peers, and the platform is not always the cheapest option for very small trades. The mobile experience requires using the 1inch Wallet rather than your preferred wallet app.

For active DeFi traders, larger-order traders, and anyone who values getting the absolute best swap rate, 1inch should be your first stop. The gas savings from Fusion mode on Ethereum mainnet alone can justify making it your default swap interface. For casual users making occasional trades on L2 networks, the advantage over a simple DEX like Uniswap is smaller but still present. Either way, 1inch has earned its position at the top of the aggregator market through genuine technical merit.