1inch is embroiled in controversy over its team's alleged manipulation of stock prices; behind the unusual trading activity involving tens of millions of dollars is a "swing trading guru."

Author: Ethan, Odaily (Planet Daily)

The large sale, attributed to the "1inch Team," has once again sparked negative comments.

Recently, the on-chain data platform ARKHAM showed that three wallets labeled "1inch Team" sold a total of 36.36 million 1INCH tokens, worth $5.04 million. According to OKX market data, this caused the 1INCH token price to drop 16.7% to $0.1155 in a short period, currently trading at $0.1164. This sale quickly raised a question in the market: Was this really the project team dumping the tokens themselves?

Looking solely at the sale itself, the outcome is less than ideal. On-chain data shows that the aforementioned 1INCH was primarily transferred to the relevant address in late November 2024. Based on the price at that time, the cost was estimated at around $0.42, corresponding to a value of approximately $15.27 million. Prior to this sale, the price of 1INCH had already fallen to around $0.14. Considering the slippage caused by the large amount of funds involved in the sale, the actual loss for this single position may exceed $10 million.

Reference: 1inch team's past trading style

Previously, the 1inch team's investment fund's on-chain operations during multiple rounds of market fluctuations had led the market to regard them as a "professional cryptocurrency trading team."

As early as February to April, the 1inch team's investment fund had already begun accumulating 1INCH at low prices. At that time, market sentiment had not yet recovered, and 1INCH hovered around $0.2 for a long time. During this period, the team invested a total of approximately $6.648 million, buying 33.19 million 1INCH, with an average purchase price of approximately $0.2.

However, this round of buying did not trigger significant price fluctuations. What truly caught the market's attention was the concentrated buying spree in early July. From July 6th to 9th, the 1inch team's investment fund made another move, investing approximately $4.4 million in just a few days to purchase 22.99 million 1INCH tokens. As buying continued, the price of 1INCH rose from around $0.18 to $0.206, a phased increase of approximately 14% . During this period, the team transferred 3 million USDC to Binance and withdrew 1INCH in batches to their own address. The funds were not used up all at once, or perhaps they were waiting for the right opportunity, and continued to buy.

After July 10th, the pace of operations accelerated significantly. On the afternoon of July 10th, the team again purchased 4.12 million 1INCH for approximately $880,000, while simultaneously replenishing Binance with 2 million USDT to prepare ammunition for subsequent transactions. On the evening of July 11th, on-chain monitoring showed that the team appeared to have purchased another 11.81 million 1INCH at a higher price range, with the transaction price rising to around $0.28. At this point, the address's holdings had increased to 83.97 million 1INCH, with a book value exceeding $23 million. On July 13th, the team withdrew another 6.334 million 1INCH from Binance.

If we rewind to early February, the 1inch team's investment fund had invested approximately $13.64 million since the beginning of the year, purchasing 55.85 million 1INCH tokens at a total cost of approximately $0.244. With the price of 1INCH surging above $0.39 in mid-July, this position had already generated a profit of several million dollars.

It's worth noting that the team wasn't just "buying without selling." On the evening of July 13, they began to realize profits on a small scale, selling approximately 904,000 1-inch tokens at a price of $0.33, netting $298,000. Earlier, they had already sold some 1-inch tokens in batches at a price of around $0.28.

At the same time, the team also took profits on another important position: ETH, which was bought in February at an average price of $2,577, has been sold in batches above $4,200, and the ETH position alone has made a profit of millions of dollars.

On August 11, according to on-chain analyst Yu Jin , the 1inch team's investment fund has begun to cash out some of its early positions on-chain. Data shows that it sold 5,000 ETH at an average price of $4,215, receiving 21.07 million USDC; at the same time, it sold 6.45 million 1INCH at an average price of $0.28, receiving approximately 1.8 million USDC.

In terms of cost basis, the aforementioned ETH was purchased by the 1inch team in February of this year at an average price of approximately $2,577; the corresponding 1INCH was mainly established in July, with a combined cost of approximately $0.253. Based solely on the ETH and 1INCH positions already sold, the 1inch team's investment fund has realized a paper profit of approximately $8.36 million .

Looking back further, the 1inch team's "buy against the trend, sell with the trend" strategy in BTC is equally clear. Between February and March of this year, they bought 160.8 WBTC at an average price of approximately $88,000 during the BTC pullback phase, and then liquidated their positions when BTC approached the $100,000 mark again in May, realizing a total profit of nearly $1 million.

Looking at the three asset lines of BTC, ETH and 1INCH, the on-chain operations of the 1inch team's investment fund seem to be a well-practiced funding strategy: building positions during market corrections, continuously adding to positions during price increases, and realizing profits in batches after prices enter a high range.

But this time, were they really operating it themselves?

It's worth noting that comparing this large sell-off around $0.14 with the past on-chain operations of the 1inch team's investment fund reveals a clear departure from their usual trading logic if the sell-off was indeed directly led by the team. In their historical operations with BTC, ETH, and 1INCH, the team more typically cashes out in batches after a price trend has been confirmed, rather than dumping shares in a concentrated manner during periods of low liquidity.

This has led some market participants to question whether the sale, labeled as being by the "1inch Team," actually originated from the team or a wallet directly controlled by them.

Subsequently, 1inch officially responded to the controversy. In its statement, it clearly stated that the sale did not occur in any wallet controlled by the 1inch team, entity, or vault multisignature, and the team could not interfere with the asset allocation and trading decisions of third-party holders.

In other words, the associations pointed to by on-chain tags are not equivalent to actual control. Judging from the execution pace and price range, this sale is more likely to have come from a third-party holder who has broken away from the project's control, rather than a shift in the 1inch team's own trading logic.

In a phase where liquidity is already limited, equating a single large sell-off with "team dumping" is itself an over-compressed interpretation of information. It ignores the natural disconnect between address tags and actual control that arises after tokens have been in circulation for a long time.

Returning to 1inch itself, the official statement emphasized that this market volatility has not changed its core business or long-term direction. Since 2019, 1inch has facilitated nearly $800 billion in transactions, maintaining daily trading volumes of several hundred million dollars even during market downturns. The team also stated that it plans to re-evaluate its token economic model this year to improve its overall resilience during periods of low liquidity and market downturns. Against this backdrop, the discussion surrounding whether the 1inch team dumped tokens seems more like a misinterpretation amplified by on-chain tags, liquidity conditions, and sentiment analysis .

However, even if it ultimately proves to be a misinterpretation, this sell-off still constitutes a real secondary shock to the already weakening price of 1INCH. Since the previous cycle high of $6, 1INCH has experienced a long period of one-sided decline and is now hovering around $0.11.

Given this trend, the market clearly lacks sufficient buffer to absorb any sudden sell signals. Ultimately, the ones who bear the brunt of the emotional impact of these amplified sell events are often the least risk-tolerant – retail investors.