Anton Bukov is an experienced software developer and entrepreneur who co-founded 1inch Network in 2019 after becoming passionate about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He has a degree in cryptography and developed a TCP/IP OS stack equivalent and a C-style language compiler.
He built a career as a C++ and iOS software developer across different fields, including machine learning, until he became a blockchain developer for BitClave in 2017. Before 1inch Network, Anton was the chief blockchain engineer at MultiToken and a senior smart contract engineer for Near protocol.
He co-founded 1inch Network in 2019 with Sergej Kunz, another software engineer. During a New York City hackathon, they had developed a prototype of a decentralized exchange aggregator that became the foundation of 1inch Network.
The 1inch DEX aggregator searches through several decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges to allow both experienced and inexperienced DeFi users to find the most advantageous exchange for their tokens.
The network’s name recalls Bruce Lee’s legendary “one-inch punch” martial arts technique, a model of efficiency, to establish the crypto project’s efficient structure in optimizing searches, results and, ultimately, profits.
In 2021, two years after its inception, 1inch Network had already exceeded a cumulative trading volume of $85.8 billion. It expanded to four new networks and integrated over 120 decentralized exchanges, thus creating the most significant liquidity in DeFi.
In April, the 1inch iOS wallet was released. It’s an all-in-one mobile platform with a user-friendly interface that includes secure storage, transaction, and even staking functions. It provides the same functions as the desktop version.
By the end of 2021, the number of wallets interacting with 1inch Network on Ethereum had already hit one million, and over 600,000 between Polygon and Binance Smart Chain, for a total of $134 billion in volume. One of the main challenges the crypto space will have to resolve is the Ethereum gas price. 1inch Network co-founder Sergej Kunz revealed to Cointelegraph that they expect a fix to the issue with “layer-2 solutions and people moving to other solutions like the Binance Smart Chain, for example.”
In December, 1inch concluded a series B investment round led by crypto-finance company Amber Group for $175 million to expand the network utility and allow liquidity access to the decentralized finance market.
In 2021, 1inch Network also introduced the 1inch Network DAO Treasury, a decentralized organization that governs the network parameters enabling 1inch holders to vote for key protocol and collect governance rewards.
At the beginning of 2022, the 1inch network hit 1.6 million total users, 11.7 million trades, and five supported networks, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Optimistic Ethereum, and Arbitrum. $120 billion in total trading volume was recorded on the Ethereum Network, placing 1inch Network among the top 10 decentralized exchanges in terms of volume.
In 2022, Cointelegraph expects Anton to focus on growing DeFi crypto assets and expand into Web3 tools such as GameFi, NFTs, play-to-earn and the metaverse, starting with the DeFi Racer game.
To further expand its presence in DeFi, the company has launched the 1inch Aggregation Protocol and the 1inch Limit Order Protocol on Avalanche and Gnosis Chain, formerly known as the xDai Chain.
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