Aqua0: The First Cross-Chain Child of Aqua 
TL;DR: We were finalists at ETHGlobal Buenos Aires 2025 building on 1inch Aqua. Now we want to make Aqua work cross-chain and become the protocol’s first major success story. Looking for feedback from the 1inch community before making a formal proposal.
The Origin Story
We met at Edge City Patagonia (a month-long builders residency for crypto projects) and saw a clear problem in DeFi: LP capital is fragmented across chains.
Example: An LP deposits $100k on Ethereum, $100k on Base, and $100k on Arbitrum ($300k total). At any moment, maybe one chain needs liquidity for swaps while the other two sit idle. That LP could be earning from all $300k at the same time instead of just $100k.
We built Aqua0 for ETHGlobal Buenos Aires (November 2025) to solve this using 1inch Aqua + LayerZero. We became finalists and won podiums in the LayerZero, 1Inch and World Foundation tracks.
The 1inch connection: 1inch started the same way… ETHGlobal winners building infrastructure that changed a category. We want to do the same for cross-chain LP efficiency, using Aqua as the foundation.
Why 1inch Aqua is Perfect for This
When 1inch launched Aqua in November 2025, you solved single-chain LP fragmentation. One position backing multiple pools on Ethereum? Amazing. Virtual balances instead of custodial contracts? Game changing.
But Aqua only works within one chain.
That’s where Aqua0 comes in.
We’re not building a competitor. We’re building Aqua’s cross-chain evolution. Your infrastructure, your virtual balance accounting, your non-custodial architecture, just coordinated across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and more via LayerZero V2.
Think of us as Aqua’s first kid. You built the foundation. We’re taking it multi-chain.
What We’re Building (Simple Version)
For LPs:
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Deposit $100k once on Chain A.
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Aqua0 coordinates that capital across Chain X, Chain Y, Chain Z at the same time
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When Chain X needs liquidity for a swap, we pull your capital via LayerZero, execute, return it instantly
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Same $100k serves swaps on all chains instead of sitting 90% idle
Result: LPs earning 5% APY in traditional pools → 15-30% APY with Aqua0. Same capital, 3-10x returns.
For 1inch:
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Big volume increase on Aqua protocol (we bring cross-chain swaps to Aqua infrastructure)
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Revenue share from our protocol fees (see details below)
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Strategic position as THE infrastructure layer for cross-chain LP efficiency
Business Model & Economics
Fee Structure
We designed a tiered fee model that rewards large capital while staying competitive:
Swap Fees (by capital size):
| Tier | Capital Range | Swap Fee |
|---|---|---|
 Whales |
$250k+ | 0.25% |
 Sharks |
$50k-250k | 0.35% |
 Marlins |
$10k-50k | 0.5% |
 Shrimps |
<$10k | 0.7% |
Other Revenue:
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Performance Fee: 3% of LP earnings (not capital)
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Withdrawal Fee: 0.3% if withdrawn <3 days, FREE after 7 days
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No pull fees (this is critical for SLAC efficiency)
Why these fees make sense:
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Uniswap V3: 0.05-0.3% (single-chain)
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Our fees: 0.25-0.7% (cross-chain coordination justifies the premium)
Early Adopter Incentives
To get liquidity fast, we offer strong benefits for early adopters:
Tier 1 - Founders (First 500 LPs):
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60 days 0% fees (completely FREE)
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Then 0.05% discount for 6 months
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“Founder LP” NFT badge + first access to new chains
Tier 2 - Early Adopters (LPs 501-2,000):
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30 days 50% discount on swap fees
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Standard rates after that
Tier 3 - Community (LPs 2,001-5,000):
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15 days 25% discount
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Standard rates after that
Why this works: Creates urgency to join early while keeping economics sustainable long term.
Revenue Share to 1inch DAO
We propose a sliding scale revenue share that recognizes Year 1 is about building while making sure we’re aligned long-term:
| Year | 1inch Share | Aqua0 Share | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 40% | 60% | High % makes up for lower total revenue during bootstrap |
| Year 2 | 30% | 70% | Still generous as we scale |
| Year 3+ | 25% | 75% | Standard long term partnership rate |
Why sliding scale:
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Year 1 revenue is low because we’re bootstrapping with free/discounted fees
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1inch gets bigger returns as we succeed
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We both win when volume grows
Revenue Projections
Year 1 (Bootstrap Phase):
Trading Volume: $100M
Total Protocol Revenue: $272k
→ 1inch gets (40%): $109k
→ Aqua0 gets (60%): $163k
Year 2 (Growth Phase):
Trading Volume: $500M
Total Protocol Revenue: $1.735M
→ 1inch gets (30%): $520k
→ Aqua0 gets (70%): $1.215M
Year 3 (Scale Phase):
Trading Volume: $2B
Total Protocol Revenue: $7.82M
→ 1inch gets (25%): $1.955M
→ Aqua0 gets (75%): $5.865M
3-Year Total to 1inch: $2.584M
Conservative Case (if we do 50% less volume):
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Year 1: $60k to 1inch
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Year 2: $270k to 1inch
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Year 3: $1M to 1inch
Optimistic Case (if we do 50% more volume):
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Year 1: $160k to 1inch
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Year 2: $780k to 1inch
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Year 3: $2.925M to 1inch
What 1inch Gets Beyond Money
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Strategic position as THE infrastructure for cross-chain LP efficiency
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Volume growth on Aqua protocol across 8-10 chains
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Proof that Aqua can create an ecosystem of protocols
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First mover advantage in the $300B cross-chain trading market
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Zero development cost - we build, maintain, and scale everything
The Narrative We’re Selling
1inch started as ETHGlobal winners disrupting DeFi aggregation.
Aqua0 wants to be the ETHGlobal finalists disrupting cross-chain LP efficiency.
You proved that hackathon projects can build category defining protocols. We want to prove Aqua can create an ecosystem of protocols solving problems 1inch doesn’t need to solve internally.
Aqua as infrastructure > Aqua as product.
If we succeed, 1inch Aqua becomes the virtual liquidity layer that EVERYONE building cross-chain DeFi uses. We’re the proof of concept. The first to show it works at scale.
What We’re Asking
This is Phase 1… we want feedback first.
Later we’ll make a formal grant proposal (~$100k for 6 months). The grant would cover:
Grant Breakdown:
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Team salaries: $8k/month ($48k)
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Yudhishthra (Development Lead): $3k/month
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Tomás (Product Lead): $3k/month
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Founding Engineer (Full-stack): $2k/month
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Infrastructure & tech: $1k/month ($6k)
- Servers, APIs, deployment costs, LayerZero fees
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Security audit: $30-40k (one-time, before mainnet)
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Company setup (BVI): $3-4k (one-time)
Total: ~$100k for Year 6 months run-away
Questions for the community:
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Fee structure: Does the tiered model (0.25-0.7% based on capital size) make sense? Too high? Too low?
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Revenue share: Does the sliding scale (40% → 30% → 25%) fairly balance bootstrap risk vs long-term value for 1inch?
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Early adopter incentives: Are the discounts (60 days FREE for first 500 LPs) strong enough to bootstrap liquidity? Too generous?
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Grant amount: Is $100k for 12 months reasonable for team + audit + infrastructure?
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Timeline: Testnet in 1 month, mainnet in 3 months after grant approval. Realistic or too aggressive?
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What else should we be thinking about that we haven’t addressed?
Where We Are Today
Team:
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Yudhishthra: 4+ years Blockchain Engineer. Ex-Nethermind, Ex-Etherscan. Building contracts + infrastructure.
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Tomás: 5+ years DeFi PM, worked with Solv Protocol, Near, and others. Full-time on Aqua0.
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Recruiting: Full-stack engineer with grant funds
What’s Next:
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Get feedback from this thread
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Choose security audit partner
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Decide final deployment chains (likely Base + Arbitrum)
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Move to Phase 2 (formal proposal with full specs)
The Vision (Where This Goes)
Year 1 (2026):
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200-500 active LPs
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$500k-1M capital deployed (vTVL)
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$100M trading volume
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$109k to 1inch (40% share)
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2-5 chains live (Base, Arbitrum, Ethereum, SEI, HyperEVM)
Year 2 (2027):
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1,000-3,000 active LPs
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$20-50M capital deployed
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$500M-1B trading volume
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$520k to 1inch (30% share)
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6-10 chains live, automated features
Year 3 (2028):
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5,000+ active LPs
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$100M+ capital deployed
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$2B+ trading volume
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$1.955M to 1inch (25% share)
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10+ chains, Aqua becomes standard infrastructure for cross-chain LP efficiency
Long-term (2029+): Multiple protocols build on Aqua infrastructure. 1inch positioned as the layer that powers cross-chain DeFi as L2s keep fragmenting liquidity. Aqua0 proves the model works, others follow.
Help Us Build This Right
We’re not asking for a yes/no vote yet. We’re asking:
Is this something the 1inch community wants to see built?
What are we missing? What concerns should we fix before making a formal proposal?
Who else in the community should we talk to?
Write your thoughts below. If you see problems, tell us. We prefer to fix them now rather than discover them after mainnet launch.
If the community thinks this makes sense, we’ll move to Phase 2 with a formal proposal including full technical specs, detailed financials, and clear deliverables.
Let’s make Aqua cross-chain together.
Links:
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Twitter: @AquaZero0
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GitHub: github.com/jackmielke/Aqua0
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ETHGlobal: ethglobal.com/showcase/aqua0-u2krx
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Website: Coming soon