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FollowingDeFi's next wave of users will not read white papers or chase revenue among ten pools of money.
Holly Atkinson, chief product and technology officer at 1inch, visited TheStreetRoundtable to explain how the platform is building services for these new users and why its new Aqua protocol rethinks what liquidity actually is. 1inch, a decentralized exchange aggregator that routes multiple transactions to find the best price between different DEXs, is now expanding into a broader DeFi platform.
Users in 2028: Expand rather than replace
When asked what the typical DeFi user looks like in 2027 or 2028, Atkinson gave a clear answer. "The user base is expanding. It's not a transformation, it's an expansion,"Atkinson said. Heavy users of crypto-native who have always driven innovation remain critical to 1inch and the industry as a whole. At the same time, new players are pouring in through tokenization of real-world assets, easier access to gold, and mainstream platforms. 1inch's strategy is to serve both groups. "We want to continue to serve our users, which means providing the best execution and more advanced features for experienced users, while providing a very simplified experience for novices," Atkinson explained.
Aqua: Three Problems
Aqua is a 1inch shared mobility protocol launched as a developer version on November 17, 2025, aiming to solve three issues that still plague DeFi. The first is the fragmentation of liquidity. In the current DeFi protocol, users deposit tokens into a specific pool of funds to provide liquidity, and once deposited, those tokens are locked in that single pool and cannot be used elsewhere. The second problem is low capital utilization. Since tokens usually only support one position at a time, a large amount of capital is idle and does not generate any benefits. The third issue is the trusteeship issue. Most liquidity providers require users to deposit assets into smart contracts, thereby relinquishing control of assets. "Aqua solves three core issues in DeFi," Atkinson said."We solve the problem of low capital utilization caused by tokens supporting only one position at a time, we multiply the capital potential, and we also solve the problem of giving up custody by depositing tokens into the liquidity pool because Aqua is self-custodial."
One token, multiple positions, all from your wallet
The most innovative thing about Aqua is that it can do this without users giving up hosting. In traditional liquidity pools, providing liquidity means sending tokens to smart contracts. Aqua allows users to provide liquidity directly from their wallets, and the same token can simultaneously support multiple positions in different trading pairs, different price ranges, and different rate levels. Users open a position by selecting a trading pair, setting a price range, and selecting a rate level. Tokens never leave the wallet until the transaction is actually executed. When a transaction occurs, the required tokens are atomically withdrawn for the transaction, and if not used, they are returned immediately. "One wallet can support multiple positions, all backed by the same token," Atkinson pointed out,"and because these tokens can support multiple positions at the same time, they have more opportunities to earn fees." For users, this is an improvement in capital efficiency." This design transforms each wallet into a self-managed automated market maker (AMM). Multiple strategies can leverage the same underlying asset simultaneously without fragmentation or lock-in. The result is significantly greater capital efficiency: the same dollar can operate safely in multiple places simultaneously.
