You Won’t Believe What This DEX Aggregator is Cooking Up Next: Memes, Mangoes, and MEVs!

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Ah, Decentralized Finance, the Wild West of the internet, where everyone is a sheriff and no one has pants. Right in the middle of this cryptographic rodeo is 1inch, which, despite sounding like the worst Tinder nickname, is actually the Amazon Prime of swapping crypto. They’ll find you a better deal, and you don’t even have to share your mom’s Prime account.

I recently cornered Aleksandra “Sasha” Fetisova, Head of Business Development at 1inch, at Paris Blockchain Week 2025. Nothing says “bleeding edge innovation” like discussing the future of finance while staring longingly at pastries you can’t afford because your meme coins tanked.

Sasha spilled the beans on 1inch’s latest upgrades, industry chaos, and why the future of DeFi might be shaped by mangoes, memes, and—this is not a typo—robots who never sleep. 🤖

1inch goes bananas

DEX Aggregator: The Kayak of Crypto

If you thought 1inch was just another DEX, don’t worry, you’re not alone, and you’re also wrong. 1inch is a DEX aggregator. It’s the Expedia for swapping tokens—only, unlike your last vacation, you won’t find hidden resort fees or bed bugs.

The latest bag of tricks? Sasha explained they now have an intent-based, cross-chain gasless solution called Fusion. I assume “intent-based” means it won’t let you trade away your rent money unless you really mean it. Fusion is so interoperable, even your ex wants to get back together with it. Oh, and it’s protected against MEV attacks—because who among us hasn’t been mugged by a robot lately? 🤷‍♀️

Translation: It’s faster, cheaper, safer, and, unlike many DeFi products, won’t require three therapy sessions afterward.

Let’s talk fees, or, as they’re called in crypto, “the reason your portfolio is on a diet.” Sasha swears by zero hidden fees. “Direct swaps, no extra costs, cross my heart and hope to hodl.” It’s community-driven and doesn’t take a cut. So, the opposite of airport sandwiches.

Behind the scenes, 1inch’s developers are optimizing swaps like they’re prepping for a speed-dating marathon. They aggregate liquidity from over 500 DEXs across up to 13 chains, even pulling secret sauce liquidity from centralized exchanges thanks to market makers charmingly dubbed “resolvers.”

Security Through Minimalism (or: Why Anton Doesn’t Go to Parties)

Sasha flexed that 1inch “has never been hacked,” because they treat audits like millennials treat avocado toast: five to ten at a time. Lead developer Anton Bukov insists on writing code so minimal you could slip it under a door. The code is lean, mean, and apparently so small it gets audited by elves. 🧝‍♂️

Dubai Calling: Now With More Palm Trees and Crypto

Once remote, now cool again, the 1inch team recently opened their first physical office in Dubai. According to Sasha, the IMEA region is “very fruitful”—and not just because they apparently love mangoes.

If you’re ever in Dubai and bored of gold-plated toilets, the 1inch crew will even show you around. Nothing says community like free crypto tourism—no strings, but possibly plenty of blockchains.

What’s shaping DeFi’s destiny? Institutions. Strange bedfellows like banks (yes, those banks), stockpiling “FORGE platforms” like Gollum with a wallet full of Web3 rings. Even Binance and OKX are jumping on the “let’s pretend we’re decentralized” bandwagon.

On the Wild West side: meme coins. “Trump launched a meme coin and brought a stampede of newbies—most of whom tripped over their own laces and went home broke.” Maybe crypto needs warning labels, “May cause loss of dignity and pants.”

Mangoes, Robots, and Billion-User Ambitions

Sasha is excited about tokenizing real-world assets. Want to buy a mango for an African central bank? There’s a token for that now. “Next up: real estate, hedge funds,” Sasha says. The next billion users are apparently coming for the fruit salad, not just the financial freedom. 🥭

Onboarding billions—how? AI agents! Give everyone a robot crypto butler who never gets tired, never judges your lack of meme coin profits, and won’t ghost you. Meanwhile, Sasha can help a hundred people a day, but her AI alter-ego will be available 24/7/365, except on leap years. 👾

The pièce de résistance: 1inch just expanded to Solana, and rumor has it more chains are coming. Place your bets, take your pick, and hold on to your wallets—because it’s only getting weirder (and possibly more delicious).

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2025-05-07 11:24