1inch routing exceeds $800 billion, co-founder points out DeFi's profit bottleneck

1inch has routed more than US$800 billion in transactions, and co-founders say DeFi is still not big enough to make a profit.

1inch has routed more than US$800 billion in transactions, but its co-founders reportedly said that decentralized finance (DeFi) is still too small to make a profit. This is a striking contradiction: huge trading volume but no clear profit prospects.

1inch routing transaction volume is reported to exceed US$800 billion.

This headline number is very large. According to unconfirmed reports, Crypto Briefing pointed out that the cumulative swap transaction volume routed by 1inch in its aggregated network has exceeded $800 billion. It should be noted that this number itself is far less important than the lack of verification behind it. No measurement cycles, methodology, or underlying data sets are currently provided to verify how this total is calculated.

In addition,"routing transaction volume" does not equal "revenue". It measures the total value of transactions conducted through the aggregator, rather than fees earned or retained profits. It is wrong to confuse the two.

The confirmed facts are closer to the product level

The exact situation is closer to the product level. According to the official blog index, the official 1inch blog stated in a preview of the announcement on September 4, 2026 that its Aqua system handles more than US$500 million in swap transactions. The transaction volume for this particular product does not establish 1inch of overall routing transaction volume, revenue or net profit.

The preview also mentions a design feature: Aqua transactions come directly from the wallet of the liquidity provider, and the tokens remain immovable until the swap is actually traded. This is a product-specific data, not a company-level sum.

The agreement continues to expand its territory

The agreement has been actively expanding its influence recently. It recently launched the Monad network to provide swaps, cross-chain transfers, Aqua liquidity and API access, and added support for Tenbin Gold, Tenbin Brazilian Real and Tenbin Mexican Peso on Ethereum. Previously, 1inch has expanded its DEX services to the Solana network and integrated with Ondo Finance to gain access to real-world assets (RWA).

Co-founders say DeFi is still too small to be profitable

Here's a turning point. According to unconfirmed reports, a co-founder of 1inch said the company has not yet reached a profit because the DeFi market is still too small to generate sustainable revenue.

This needs to be handled cautiously. No dated interviews, audio recordings, transcriptions or financial statements have been obtained to confirm the wording, speakers or the time period covered by the remarks. This assessment is mainly based on the size of the DeFi market, rather than concluding that all DeFi companies are losing money. This alone cannot prove that 1inch itself is in a loss state.

Why $800 billion in trading volume means nothing to the bottom line

The core tension of this story is the gap between activity volume and earnings. The transaction value flowing through the agreement and the actual funds retained by the enterprise are two completely different concepts.

Data on revenue, expenses, profit margins or break-even points are not included in the available information. As a result, there is no basis for asserting 1inch's financial performance, nor can there be a threshold for when DeFi will achieve profitability.

From a market perspective, the market has not priced it triumphantly. The 1INCH token trading price was US$0.090492, down 2.7% in 24 hours, giving a market value of approximately US$127 million. This is the performance of the token, not the company's accounts.

Huge transaction volume, coins worth only a few cents, and co-founders reported that the entire industry is too small to make a profit. If $800 billion in trading volume still cannot break the earnings deadlock, how much trading volume will it take?

Disclaimer : This article is for reference only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. There are significant risks in the cryptocurrency and digital asset markets. Be sure to conduct independent research before making a decision.