The 1inch Network has unveiled Aqua, a groundbreaking shared liquidity protocol designed to revolutionize decentralized finance by enabling users to deploy the same assets across multiple DeFi activities without locking funds in smart contracts. This innovation addresses long-standing capital efficiency issues in DeFi, where traditional models force liquidity providers to commit funds to isolated pools, limiting flexibility and increasing opportunity costs.
Aqua's architecture creates a unified liquidity layer where assets remain securely in users' wallets until trades execute, allowing simultaneous participation in activities like liquidity provision, governance voting, and collateral use. Key benefits include enhanced capital efficiency, reduced fragmentation, and improved security by minimizing exposure to smart contract vulnerabilities.
The developer release, available now on GitHub, provides early access to Aqua's SDK, libraries, and documentation, empowering builders to experiment and integrate new strategies. 1inch is offering bounties of up to $100,000 for contributions that optimize the protocol, with the frontend set to launch in Q1 2026. Co-founder Anton Bukov emphasized, "Aqua solves liquidity fragmentation for market makers by multiplying effective capital," while Sergej Kunz noted, "Aqua is the foundation for scalable, capital-efficient DeFi." This release marks a significant step toward mainstream DeFi adoption, potentially setting a new industry standard for liquidity management.
