Is the 1inch team involved in a "dump" scandal? On-chain data reveals the truth behind the million-level capital movement

Original Title: "1inch Team Accused of Dumping, On-Chain Data Reveals Fancy Swing Trading of Large Positions"

Original Author: Ethan, Odaily Planet Daily

The large sell-off marked as "1inch Team" has sparked negative reviews once again.

Recently, the on-chain data platform ARKHAM showed that three wallets marked as "1inch Team" sold a total of 36.36 million 1INCH tokens, worth 5.04 million USD. According to OKX market data, as a result, the price of the 1INCH token dropped by 16.7% to 0.1155 USD, currently reported at 0.1164 USD. A question quickly arose in the market regarding this sell-off: Is the project team really dumping their own tokens?

Looking solely at this sell-off, the outcome is not ideal. On-chain data shows that the aforementioned 1INCH tokens were mainly transferred to related addresses in late November 2024, with an estimated cost of around 0.42 USD, corresponding to a value of about 15.27 million USD. Before this sell-off, the price of 1INCH had already fallen back to around 0.14 USD. Coupled with the slippage effect due to the large amount of funds involved in the sell-off, the actual loss from this batch of positions could exceed 10 million USD.

Reference: The Previous Trading Style of the 1inch Team

Previously, the 1inch Team's investment fund's on-chain operations during multiple rounds of market fluctuations were regarded by the market as the actions of a "professional trading team."

As early as between February and April, the 1inch Team's investment fund began accumulating 1INCH at low prices. At that time, market sentiment had not yet warmed up, and 1INCH lingered around 0.2 USD for a long time. During this phase, the team invested a total of about 6.648 million USD, buying 33.19 million 1INCH tokens at an average cost of about 0.2 USD.

However, this round of buying did not trigger significant price fluctuations; what truly caught the market's attention was the concentrated accumulation in early July. From July 6 to 9, the 1inch Team's investment fund made another move, adding approximately 4.4 million USD in just a few days, buying 22.99 million 1INCH tokens. As buying pressure continued, the price of 1INCH rose from around 0.18 USD to 0.206 USD, a phase increase of about 14%. During this period, the team transferred 3 million USDC to Binance and gradually withdrew 1INCH to their own address, indicating that the related funds were not exhausted at once and may still be waiting for opportunities to continue buying.

After July 10, the operational pace clearly accelerated. On the afternoon of July 10, the team again bought 4.12 million 1INCH for about 880,000 USD, while supplementing 2 million USDT to Binance to prepare ammunition for subsequent trades. On the evening of July 11, on-chain monitoring showed that the team seemingly bought 11.81 million 1INCH at a higher price range, with transaction prices rising to around 0.28 USD. By then, the holdings in that address had increased to 83.97 million 1INCH, with a book value exceeding 23 million USD. On July 13, the team continued to withdraw 6.334 million 1INCH from Binance.

If we trace back to early February, the 1inch Team's investment fund had cumulatively invested about 13.64 million USD since the beginning of the year, buying 55.85 million 1INCH tokens at an average cost of about 0.244 USD. Against the backdrop of 1INCH's price reaching above 0.39 USD in mid-July, this portion of positions had already realized millions of dollars in profits.

It is worth noting that the team is not "buying without selling." On the evening of July 13, they began to cash out small profits, selling about 904,000 1INCH at a price of 0.33 USD, returning 298,000 USD; earlier, they had already sold some 1INCH in batches at around 0.28 USD.

At the same time, the team also took profits on another important position: ETH, which was previously bought at an average price of 2,577 USD in February, has begun to be sold in batches above 4,200 USD, realizing profits of millions of dollars solely from the ETH position.

On August 11, according to on-chain analyst Yujin Monitoring, the 1inch Team's investment fund began to cash out part of its previous positions on-chain. Data shows that they sold 5,000 ETH at an average price of 4,215 USD, returning 21.07 million USDC; at the same time, they sold 6.45 million 1INCH at an average price of 0.28 USD, returning about 1.8 million USDC.

From the perspective of acquisition costs, the aforementioned ETH was bought by the 1inch Team in February at an average price of about 2,577 USD; the corresponding 1INCH was mainly acquired in July, with a comprehensive cost of about 0.253 USD. Just from the ETH and 1INCH positions that have been sold, the 1inch Team's investment fund has realized about 8.36 million USD in book profits.

If we look further back, the 1inch Team's "counter-trend buying and trend-following selling" operation path in BTC is also clear. Between February and March, during the BTC pullback phase, they bought 160.8 WBTC at an average price of about 88,000 USD and completed liquidation when BTC approached the 100,000 USD mark again in May, realizing nearly 1 million USD in profits overall.

Considering the three asset lines of BTC, ETH, and 1INCH, the on-chain operations of the 1inch Team's investment fund resemble a set of funding strategies that have been repeatedly practiced: building positions during market adjustment phases, continuously increasing during upward trends, and cashing out profits in batches when prices enter high ranges.

But this time, is it really them operating?

It should be noted that if we compare this large sell-off occurring around 0.14 USD with the past on-chain operations of the 1inch Team's investment fund, we find that: if this sell-off was indeed directly led by the team, then the execution method itself deviates significantly from their past trading logic. In historical operations involving BTC, ETH, or 1INCH, the team more commonly executed trades in batches after price trend confirmations, rather than concentrating on selling in clearly low liquidity ranges.

As a result, some market participants began to question whether the sell-off marked as "1inch Team" truly originated from the team or wallets directly controlled by them.

Subsequently, the 1inch official also responded to the controversy. In their statement, they clearly stated that this sell-off did not occur in any wallet controlled by the 1inch team, entity, or treasury multi-signature, and the team could not intervene in the asset allocation and trading decisions of third-party holders.

In other words, the on-chain labels indicating relationships do not equate to actual control. From the execution rhythm and price range, this sell-off is more likely to come from third-party holders who have detached from project control, rather than a shift in the 1inch Team's own trading logic.

In a phase where liquidity is already limited, a single large sell-off being quickly equated to "team dumping" is itself an overly compressed interpretation of information. It overlooks the natural gap between address labels and actual control rights after the long-term circulation of tokens.

Returning to 1inch itself. The official statement emphasized that this market fluctuation has not changed its core business and long-term direction. Since 2019, 1inch has cumulatively facilitated trading volumes close to 800 billion USD, and even during market downturns, it has maintained a daily trading scale of hundreds of millions of USD. The team also stated that they plan to reassess the token economic model this year to enhance overall resilience during low liquidity and downward cycles. In this context, the discussion around "whether the 1inch team is dumping" seems more like a misinterpretation amplified by on-chain labels, liquidity environment, and emotional readings.

However, even if it ultimately proves to be a misinterpretation, this sell-off still constitutes a real secondary impact on the already weakening price of 1INCH. Since the last cycle's peak of 6 USD, 1INCH has experienced a prolonged unilateral decline and is now hovering around 0.11 USD.

On such a trend, the market clearly lacks sufficient buffer space to absorb any sudden sell-off signals. These amplified sell-off events ultimately bear the emotional impact, often affecting the side with the weakest risk tolerance—retail investors.