1inch Aqua is a self-custodial, permissionless shared liquidity layer. This page consolidates the risk framing that applies across the docs; it is engineering context, not legal or financial advice.
Self-custody
Tokens stay in the maker's wallet under a revocable, per-chain, per-token ERC-20 allowance and move only when a taker fills atomically. The protocol holds zero tokens; virtual balances are an internal counter in Aqua.sol. Revoke by setting the allowance to 0. There are no deposits and nothing is locked.
Smart-contract & approval risk
Audited, but new — audits reduce, not eliminate, smart-contract risk. Granting an allowance is a risk decision: a bug or a compromised approval target could move approved tokens. Prefer bounded allowances where practical and monitor approvals.
No guaranteed yield
Makers earn swap fees, which are not guaranteed and do not offset impermanent loss in every market. Aqua does not promise APY, APR, or returns. Any APY/APR shown by a tool is a computed position metric, not a promise.
Access is taker-side only
Makers are permissionless. Only takers are gated at launch (default-deny KycNFT credential held by KYB-verified 1inch Resolvers). Makers and end users are never KYC'd by the protocol. dApp surfaces also apply sanctioned-address screening.
Launch status & estimates
Aqua is live and routable. Takers need a KycNFT credential to fill, and the credential must currently be requested from 1inch via the 1inch Business Portal. Every derived metric (analytics, subgraph) is an estimate from public data, carrying a method block, and is not an official 1inch figure.
Immutability
A shipped strategy is immutable: any change is dock() then a fresh ship(), producing a new strategyHash. There is no on-chain pause and no liquidation; an underfunded strategy simply stops filling (a Coverage effect).
Audits
1inch Aqua is audited, but new — audits reduce, not eliminate, smart-contract risk. 1inch Aqua and the SwapVM engine have been audited by OpenZeppelin, Bailsec, Hexens, Nethermind, Theori, Decurity, Hashlock and MixBytes. Even so, treat the code as new in production.
Admin-key concentration
The Aqua registry and the router Rescuable are owned by an externally-owned account (0x4134e66d52EfC4C77DD8Ccc952D87b9E92E0C352, an interim arrangement pending the final ownership transfer), and the KycNFT minter by another EOA (0x0bd61D605c64A857c3d94779aEF7cA295702b3A2) — none of them a multisig. A key compromise is a live risk to consider when integrating. A multisig migration is proposed but not executed.
Legal & disclaimers
This is engineering documentation for the deployed 1inch Aqua protocol. It is not investment, legal, tax or financial advice.
No offer or recommendation. Nothing on this page or anywhere in these docs is an offer, solicitation, inducement or recommendation to provide liquidity, acquire or dispose of any asset, or enter into any transaction. Any decision to interact with the protocol is your own.
Self-custodial and permissionless for makers. Tokens stay in the maker's own wallet under a revocable ERC-20 allowance; the protocol holds zero tokens and no intermediary takes custody. Maker funds move only inside an atomic taker fill, and only up to the allowance the maker granted. Anyone can act as a maker without permission.
Jurisdiction and compliance. Availability and use of the protocol, the dApp and any related interface may be restricted or unlawful in some jurisdictions. You are solely responsible for determining whether your use is permitted where you are, and for meeting your own tax, regulatory, sanctions and compliance obligations. Nothing here waives any such restriction.
No warranty — provided as is. The software is licensed under LicenseRef-Degensoft-Aqua-Source-1.1 and is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied. It is audited, but new: audits reduce, they do not remove, smart-contract risk, and the code should be treated as unproven in production.
Audit coverage
1inch Aqua and the SwapVM engine have been audited by OpenZeppelin, Bailsec, Hexens, Nethermind, Theori, Decurity, Hashlock and MixBytes. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it: treat the code as audited, but new. (This mirrors the Audits note above — a single audit-status position, not two.)