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Unchained · Tuesday, July 28, 2026

85% of DeFi Liquidity Sits Idle, Says One Inch Co-founder

Sergey Nazarov cited research indicating that 85% of liquidity in DeFi protocols is idle, meaning it's not actively facilitating trades. He explained that Aqua's intent-based approach aims to increase liquidity utilization by allowing providers to set specific trading parameters.

personSergey NazarovcompanyOne Inch

The tape

3 quotes
We highlighted that 85% of the liquidity sits actually idle. It's it's participating in the price formation, but actually it doesn't move, um, at all in like 95% of the time in a year.
Sergey Nazarov
You define your strategy and you say, okay, I'm okay to buy this asset until this price. And I'm okay to sell it until this price.
Sergey Nazarov
And, um, this demand for more efficient, uh, on higher utilization of liquidity, um, so we came to the idea, okay, like, we have much more liquidity.
Sergey Nazarov
Heard on Unchained — “Paid Partnership: How Can DeFi Fix Its Liquidity Problem? 1inch's Aqua Offers a Solution, published Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via Gemini audio transcription · $0.04
85% of DeFi Liquidity Sits Idle, Says One Inch Co-founder — Heardvine