1inch says 85% of DeFi liquidity sits idle — Aqua wants to fix that

By 1inch's own estimate, 85% of concentrated liquidity on major DEXs sits idle — roughly $1.6 billion of the $1.84 billion tracked, parked dead weight while the strategy it's locked into isn't trading. On July 28, 1inch took the fix public: Aqua, billed as the first "shared liquidity layer" for DeFi, launched across 13 EVM-compatible chains at once.

The idea is that the same capital sitting in a wallet can back several trading strategies at once, instead of getting frozen under just one. A wallet connects to the protocol and turns into a self-custodial market maker: assets stay with the user at all times, and a given strategy only touches them at the moment of a trade — via a single atomic transaction that pulls the needed tokens and pushes back what it receives, fees included.

We've covered how a liquidity pool actually works and why a DEX can trade without an order book — liquidity pool: how a DEX trades without an order book; Aqua tackles the next problem in line — once capital is deposited, it gets stuck under a single strategy even after the market has moved on.

“Aqua solves liquidity fragmentation for market makers by multiplying effective capital. From now on, the only limit to your capital efficiency is your strategy.”

— Anton Bukov, co-founder of 1inch

Quote source: CoinDesk, November 17, 2025.

A developer version of Aqua actually shipped back in November 2025 at Devconnect in Argentina, when only developers with early SDK and documentation access could use it. The July 28 public launch is the next step: the same protocol now open to everyone, live on 13 networks from day one, The Block reports.

The real test for Aqua doesn't start on launch day — it starts once market makers and protocols actually move capital out of old, siloed pools and into the shared layer. Until then, that 85% idle-liquidity figure is a sales pitch, not a proven result.

*This piece is informational, not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset.*