DeFi Aggregators Shift to 'Intent-Based' Trading as Market Consolidates
Trading volumes across decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators dropped by approximately 40% in Q1 2026, according to data from DefiLlama and Messari. The market is consolidating with different leaders on various blockchains: Jupiter dominates Solana, KyberSwap and CowSwap lead on Ethereum, while 1inch remains the top aggregator across multiple chains by cumulative volume. The industry is transitioning toward 'intent-based' trading execution models, where users specify their trade intent rather than just price. 1inch's Fusion system has performed better during this downturn compared to its older protocol and pioneered cross-chain intent-based swaps in 2024. The company also expanded into tokenized real-world assets with significant growth in volume and average trade size. In late July, 1inch launched Aqua, a self-custodial liquidity layer across 13 chains backed by incentives to activate idle DeFi liquidity.
Topics: 1inch Network Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Intent-Based Execution Trading Volume