1inch geofences US IP addresses, says new product for the American market is in prep

The popular decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity aggregator 1inch has been restricting US trades since April, but the network has only recently added a technical layer to control its terms of use compliance.

By combing through token prices across the leading decentralized exchanges (DEXes), 1inch is designed to find the most lucrative swapping deals for users.

Pop-up notification

As of recently, 1inch added a pop-up notification and technical layer to control its terms of use compliance, geofencing US IP addresses.

“…then they fight you”. SEC +1

You now have to sign a *legal* message on chain to use 1inch. Probably the beginning of a new UX trend in this dark or murky DeFi waters. pic.twitter.com/kTwA59VXK6

— Julien Bouteloup (@bneiluj) September 29, 2021

Launched in August 2020 after a $2.8 million funding raise from the likes of Binance Labs, Galaxy Digital, Greenfield One, Libertus Capital and Dragonfly Capital, the popular platform that sources liquidity from various exchanges and is able to efficiently split a single trade across multiple DEXs has been growing in volume since.

Top DEXes by Volume in last 30 days

Let’s compare top DEXes by the trading volume in the last 30 days, in order to evaluate their adoption scale.$UNI $DFYN $DYDX $SUSHI $MDX #1INCH $CAKE $CRV $QUICK pic.twitter.com/96plRPonoO

— TOP 7 ICO (@top7ico) September 28, 2021

“Our Interface is NOT offered to persons or entities who reside in, are citizens of, are incorporated in, or have a registered office in the United States of America or any restricted territory, as defined below (any such person or entity, a “Restricted Person”). We do not make exceptions. If you are a restricted person, then do not attempt to access or use the Interface. Use of a virtual private network (e.g., a VPN) or other means by restricted persons to access or use the Interface is prohibited,” read the eligibility part of the platform’s terms of use, updated in April 2021.

Though a number of international exchanges moved to limit their products in certain jurisdictions, the restricted access is fairly simple to circumvent by using VPNs for masking physical location.

As of September 29, 1inch users have to sign a legal disclaimer message on-chain.

Preparing a product for the US market

1inch’s popularity has been on the rise, as the network keeps gunning for the 1 million total user milestone.

😱 Unbelievable! 🦄👊 #1inch successfully surpasses 700K in total users count!

The 1M mark is closer and closer 😏

🔗 https://t.co/R7USegSose#DeFi #crypto pic.twitter.com/TA9ZM9wzOw

— 1inch Network (@1inch) September 24, 2021

Meanwhile, the network disclosed its plans to debut a new product, specifically designed for the American market and global institutional investors.

“The 1inch Network is in the process of collecting the Series B funding round that has now grown to $175M (instead of $70M as was planned before). A significant part of these funds will be used for the development and launch of the 1inch Pro product which is specifically designed for the US market and for global institutional investors in accordance with all the regulatory requirements,” the network’s representative told the Block.