1inch Leads the Way for Cross-Chain DeFi

With seemingly a new chain to play on every month now, frequent bridging can leave users at additional protocol risk, and subject to unnecessary fees to constantly have to move liquidity around from network to network.

1inch, the leading DeFi ecosystem, added cross-chain functionality to its Swap API in September 2024. Its atomic, intent-based execution is based on an innovative Dutch auction approach for rate sourcing, and an automated recovery for cross-chain swaps in the event of any failed swaps. Through this upgrade 1inch pools liquidity from across all of its integrated chains, ensuring the most efficient rates for users possible.

This function allows users to safely and seamlessly swap assets on different networks without having to use a bridge, streamlining the process, and saves the user on fees thanks to its gasless transactions.

1inch runs the largest EVM-based DEX aggregator in DeFi, with $13 billion in total volume over the last 30 days, narrowly beating out CowSwap. In the first 8 months, 1inch’s cross-chain modality commanded a strong share of the protocol’s total volume.

With one full year of cross-chain swaps under its belt, 1inch has recorded $516 million in cross-chain volume. Protocol usage continues to expand, with a recent report from Messari citing a 3.8% increase quarter over quarter volume, indicating a steady growth in adoption.

The cross-chain feature’s use may continue to expand, as 1inch also launched Solana compatibility on August 19. The move not only expands 1inch’s capabilities, but may see the aggregator get a leg up on the Solana-based DEX Jupiter, which touts the highest DEX aggregator volumes in all of DeFi with $26 billion over the last 30 days.

What is a cross-chain swap on 1inch?

1inch’s cross-chain swaps are built on the intent-based approach they released in 2022, where users request token fills and leverage resolvers to fulfill the order. In this scenario, the resolvers are competing with one another for fees generated by the transaction, so they will quote a more favorable rate for the user. In short it creates a healthy competition for swap rates.

In this case, the swap rate competition pool is expanded cross-chain, meaning there are significantly more liquidity pools to choose from.

The resolvers who provide the swap rates compete in a Dutch auction to fulfill the user’s swap intent. The winner then runs the swap at the quoted rate and covers the gas payments, making the swap as cheap as possible for the user.

All 1inch cross-chain swap transactions are gasless, and feature MEV protection from malicious sandwich attacks. Thanks to the atomic approach, swap attempts either completely succeed or fail, meaning there are no costs for failed swaps or tricky partial-fills.

1inch’s cross-chain integration trumps many of the other solutions on the market at the moment, which can have high and volatile gas prices depending on the networks being used, and do not usually feature the best possible swap rates.

By securely blending liquidity across different blockchain networks, 1inch lays groundwork for uniting DeFi again, which has struggled immensely with liquidity fragmentation over the last few years.

Getting Started

Cross-chain swaps are accessible directly in the 1inch dApp, and can be activated by simply changing the network that sends and receives the transaction within the interface. The process is as straightforward as any traditional swap interface, but with the added option for source and destination networks.

For example we can swap ETH on Ethereum for USDC on Solana, by simply choosing to pay with ETH, and setting the source chain as Ethereum, while receiving USDC on SOL. In this case we can choose Solana and connect a Solana-compatible wallet, then click “swap” and the interface will walk you through the rest.

Once your wallet has agreed and signed to the dApps terms and conditions, you’re two transaction approvals and just a few minutes away from having the asset of your choice in your wallet and ready to go on the destination network.

The functionality is also available in the 1inch Swap API, so third party developers to add cross-chain support in their own applications as well, with full documentation available in the 1inch developer portal with DeFi protocols such as Infinex, and wallet providers such as Metamask and Ledger already integrating 1inch’s cross-chain technology.

Cross-chain swaps not only set 1inch apart from the rest via its gasless, MEV-proof transaction approach, but also opens up the door to further DeFi integrations in the 1inch ecosystem. The design places endless liquidity offerings at 1inch users hands, which has the ability to evolve into a complete DeFi platform that offers a variety of unified finance markets.