1inch (1INCH), a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that searches multiple trading venues simultaneously to find users the best available price, has said the passage of the US CLARITY Act would materially change its ability to market products in the United States. CFO Chaeho Shin added that regulatory clarity in Washington would have an outsized effect on institutional adoption across the Asia-Pacific region.
1inch CFO: CLARITY Act Would Unlock US Marketing, RWA Volume Already Tops $5bn
19 June 2026 - 15:00 CEST
By Stu Clelland
"All the regulators and institutions in Korea are waiting for this clarity," Shin told Sandmark. "It would make a significant difference, particularly for institutional players in the region."
The comments came as around 60 crypto CEOs co-signed an open letter to the Senate pushing for the CLARITY Act to pass – including 1inch's own CEO. 1inch has already lifted its US geo-block following the change in administration, reopening its decentralized application (dApp) – a blockchain-based app that runs without a central authority – to American users.
Shin said the CLARITY Act's contents are "spot on" but predicted a wave of altcoin delistings as a consequence, with tokens failing to meet the bill's criteria effectively pushed out of the market.
RWA volume tops $5bn
On the business side, Shin said 1inch is now generating more volume from B2B API sales to institutional partners than from retail users – a shift he described as intentional, built on the same core technology stack that powers the consumer product.
The dominant B2B trend, he said, is demand for 'real-world' asset (RWA) integration. RWAs are traditional financial instruments – bonds, equities, real estate – brought onchain as tradeable tokens. Shin said the number of RWA issuers is growing rapidly, but that few self-custody DeFi – decentralized finance – platforms have the infrastructure to offer RWA trading.
"We provide that technology," he said. "We work with the issuers, handle the compliance and regulatory requirements behind the scenes, and enable our partners to offer RWA trading through our swap API."
Sandmark has asked 1inch to confirm whether the $5bn figure refers exclusively to RWA volume or total B2B API volume. Over the past four to five months, Shin said more than $5bn in volume has passed through the 1inch swap API – a figure he described as evidence of real, not exploratory, demand.
Compliance as differentiator
Shin pushed back on the argument that DEX aggregators face structural commoditization as layer-1 chains – the base blockchains on which DeFi is built, such as Ethereum – improve native routing. He drew a parallel with travel aggregators: "Users understand that to get the best rates, they need to use one. The demand is durable."
He said technology parity across the market is eventually inevitable, and that 1inch's enduring advantage will come from compliance infrastructure. The company is building out AML – anti-money laundering – frameworks and institutional-grade controls designed to integrate directly with regulated counterparties.
"That is where the real separation will happen," he said.
On MEV protection – shielding users from value extraction by third parties at the point of trade, a common risk in DeFi – Shin said he is "100% confident" 1inch leads the market, attributing the edge to multiple independent smart contract audits on every new contract deployed, a cost he acknowledged few smaller competitors can match.
Shared Liquidity Protocol, 2027 outlook
Shin, who joined 1inch as CFO over four years ago and built its finance function from scratch, said the company's biggest near-term product push is a new offering built on top of the 1inch Shared Liquidity Protocol, open-sourced at the end of 2025. The protocol is designed to improve yields in decentralized liquidity pools – reserves of tokens locked in smart contracts that power DeFi trading – by pooling liquidity across multiple venues.
"The plan is to roll it out this year, making 2027 a major growth year for that product," he said.
On treasury and token economics, Shin said 1inch is sitting on a healthy reserve with no immediate financial risks, but wants to reduce the book's sensitivity to market cycles. On the 1INCH token's difficult price history, he said the answer lies in sustained communication around fundamentals rather than engagement with short-term price action.
Fusion, 1inch's intent-based swap product – which fills orders via a network of solvers rather than routing directly to liquidity pools – has become one of the company's most significant offerings. Shin said the user experience gap between a Fusion order and a conventional market order has essentially closed, with orders filled quickly and at competitive rates.
