1inch Makes Aqua Public, Rolling Out Merkl-Powered Shared Liquidity on 13 EVM Chains

1inch has launched Aqua to the public, presenting it as a self-custodial shared liquidity layer designed to provide a “risk-controlled alternative” to DeFi’s pool-based model after a developer launch in November 2025. The company says Aqua is Merkl-powered and includes a liquidity incentive program funded with 10 million 1INCH from the 1inch Foundation and 500k USDC from the 1inch DAO ^{[1] [2]}.

Aqua is available across 13 EVM chains from day one, according to multiple reports. Crypto Briefing and CoinDesk describe the setup as enabling liquidity providers to keep assets in their own wallets while using a single balance to support multiple positions without splitting capital across separate pools ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

Aqua’s public release expands 1inch’s shared-liquidity approach to multi-chain DeFi participation, accompanied by a Merkl-based incentive program and deployment across 13 EVM networks ^{[1] [3] [4]}.