By
Mayowa Adebajo
April 8th, 2024
1inch has introduced a new debit card powered by Mastercard, for the average user to easily spend crypto and also make ATM withdrawals.
Popular decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch Network has partnered with crypto card developer Baanx and payment giant Mastercard to develop a Web3 debit card. The card will allow users to perform a variety of transactions, including payments for online services, physical purchases, and card withdrawals. Withdrawals are limited to supported ATMs compatible with crypto-to-fiat transactions.
1inch Debit Card
1inch launched this card to cater to the average crypto user who needs more payment and financial options. The solution is helpful for people who are already used to conventional means of financial transactions and want a simple way to spend crypto. In an interview, 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz explained:
“We already have a lot of people who are using 1inch for swaps, limit orders and also as a developer portal. But we wanted to also onboard the man on the street who is holding crypto. So we decided to go with the 1inch card because it offers us an additional entry point for new people. Those who are more familiar with the traditional world and using a debit card and paying with crypto assets.”
According to the Baanx Chief Commercial Officer, Simon Jones, the card developer hopes to leverage the traditional and crypto sectors to empower the average user. Jones says Baanx wants to enable users to decide their finances, especially with spending, trading, or lending their digital assets. This decentralization via crypto is possible “in over 160 million locations worldwide.” Mastercard’s Senior Vice President of Crypto and Fintech Enablement, Christian Rau, also echoed similar sentiments.
According to Rau, “leveraging Mastercard’s leading technology and standards, the 1inch Card is connecting Web2 and Web3 worlds in an innovative way”.
1inch Q4 2023 Performance
A recent report from crypto market intelligence platform Messari revealed that 1inch saw a significant surge in market dominance and volume in the fourth quarter of 2023. The report disclosed that the DEX aggregator’s executed volume for the quarter hit $30 billion. This put the platform in control of 63% of the Ethereum DEX aggregator market. The increased numbers point to rising interest in 1inch and aggregator platforms in general.
Messari noted that new 1inch products, including 1inch Fusion and the Limit Order Protocol (LOP), are responsible for the platform’s transaction growth. Specifically, Fusion transactions jumped by an impressive 66% in the fourth quarter. The report also specified that LOP volume rose by 90% in Q4. LOP executed more than $6.4 billion worth of trades for the first time since the first quarter of 2023.
There were also specific increases in the share of 1inch trades processed on Uniswap V3 and V2, 8 and 3 percentage points higher, respectively. Overall, the volume on both Uniswap versions rose to $10 billion in Q4 from $5.6 billion in Q3.
1inch’s 63% market share increase in Q4 2023 was a rise from the 59% recorded in Q3. According to Messari, only one competitor, CoW Swap, also saw an increase. However, the platform only claimed 11% of the Ethereum aggregator volume for Q4. While ParaSwap had 11%, 0x saw 10%.