1inch announced the full public launch of Aqua, a self-custodial shared liquidity layer for DeFi. The idea is that liquidity providers can use the same wallet balance across multiple positions without locking assets in traditional pools. Aqua goes live across 13 EVM chains, with an incentive program supported by 10 million 1INCH and 500,000 USDC.

The main point is an attempt to change how liquidity works. In the classic model, assets are placed into pools where capital can sit underused. Aqua keeps tokens under user control and only uses them when a matching execution condition is met.

The risk is complexity. A more flexible liquidity model needs clear security, monitoring and integrations. Next, watch real liquidity, aggregator support and whether LPs prefer this structure over pool-based deployment.