1inch documents Aqua’s deployment across 13 networks, including Base, without confirming a new launch
Key Facts
Available documents do not confirm the launch of a new Aqua strategy on Base on November 3; they do, however, list the network among Aqua’s existing deployments, which 1inch documents say cover 13 EVM-compatible networks. The official contract address page lists Base among those networks, with Aqua and SwapVM contracts shown for it. The documented development therefore concerns the layer’s deployment footprint and the strategy funding structure, not an announcement of a new launch on that date. 1inch describes Aqua as a programmable liquidity layer that allows the same assets to be used in multiple swap strategies. The company puts keeping capital in market makers’ wallets at the center of its design.
According to 1inch, a single asset can support multiple strategies at the same time, potentially reducing capital fragmentation and improving its use. The company links this efficiency to market conditions and strategy design, and does not present it as a guaranteed outcome in all cases. In its description of Aqua, it says liquidity providers can share assets across several strategies “without locking funds, while keeping them in your wallet.” With this design, an asset does not need to move to a separate pool to be available to more than one strategy. The company presents this as a way to make capital available, not as a guarantee of fees or returns.
Aqua documents explain that the protocol does not hold tokens but records virtual balances, while the actual assets remain in market makers’ wallets until they are withdrawn during swap execution. 1inch documents describe these balances as an on-chain accounting tool, while swaps are executed atomically against market makers’ wallets. This means Aqua’s design relies on assets controlled by liquidity providers, rather than pooling them in the protocol’s custody. This structure remains tied to market makers’ strategies and the swap execution mechanism they support. Self-custody does not mean usage risks disappear; the learning page says smart contract, impermanent loss and market risks remain, and swap fees are not guaranteed.
For strategy development funding, the 1inch DAO incubator proposal calls for a total investment of 400,000 dollars in selected teams developing Aqua strategies. The program’s scope includes strategies built using SwapVM, but the figure applies to the incubator fund and selected teams, not to a confirmed grant for a specific strategy on Base. The proposal sets a cap of up to 50,000 dollars per team. It also ties disbursement to four milestones: 5% for idea validation, 10% for proof of concept, 35% for a functional agent, and 50% for integration into the 1inch app. The funding breakdown links payments to work progressing through the strategy’s integration into the app.
The incubator’s first-quarter 2026 report said a Snapshot vote approved the program’s full budget of 436,000 dollars, and that no amount had been disbursed by the end of that quarter. The report distinguishes the approved budget from the proposed investment for teams: the former covers the program, while the proposal sets out funding for selected teams within it. At the network level, the incubator evaluation record says the proposed Aqua0 strategy targets Base and Unichain at launch, with other networks to follow. This record does not establish that a new strategy launched on Base on November 3, but it does place the network among incubator teams’ plans. The season two proposal for liquidity provider incentives sets a 13-week period from November 10, 2026, to February 9, 2027, covering 20 pairs on Ethereum; it proposes calculating rewards based on eligible liquidity provider fees rather than trading volume, following the end of season one on October 27, 2026.