First published 26 December 2020, the day after the token. Expanded in October 2026 so the token is not described as the exchange, and so 1.5 billion is not described as something governance can still mint. 1inch is a router. It asks several exchanges for a price and fills the swap. Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov are the people most associated with it. 1INCH is the token of that system. It is not Uniswap, and it is not Ethereum. What is Uniswap (UNI)? is one of the places a route can use. Ethereum without the jargon is the ledger the token started on. ETH pays that fee. 1INCH does not, unless the swap you asked for is a swap of 1INCH.
The token was released on 25 December 2020. 1.5 billion were minted. About 6 percent circulated at the start, much of it to wallets that had already used the router. The rest was allocated to community incentives, a growth fund, contributors, and backers, unlocking over about four years. That clock finished in 2024. An unlock was coins that already existed. On 6 April 2022 the foundation burned the mint function. The cap is 1.5 billion. A later vote cannot mint past it.
The project also put a copy on BNB Chain, and said it was bridge liquidity that did not raise the cap. 1INCH on BNB Chain is not the Ethereum token until you meant that hop. What is BNB? is the fee there. The wrong network is still the wrong city. Staking 1INCH has been how the design gives voting weight, and that weight was described as decaying. A lock is not a savings account. Staking is a lock and a queue, not a savings account. This page will not walk through a swap or a vote. Nothing here is an instruction to route a trade, to stake, or to buy 1INCH.
