The decentralized exchange aggregation protocol 1inch (1INCH) experienced significant price volatility. A large sell-off from an address associated with the project's investors or team severely damaged market confidence in a short period, causing a sharp drop in the coin's price and highlighting once again the structural problems in the current crypto market, such as insufficient Altcoin and susceptibility to price fluctuations from a single transaction.
On-chain data reveals: 14 million 1INCH tokens were sold off in one go.
According to data monitored by on-chain data analyst Yu Jin, an address believed to be associated with investors or the team behind the 1inch project sold approximately 14 million 1INCH tokens on the Ethereum network on January 27, 2026, for a total value of approximately $1.83 million.
Although the sale was not in the tens of millions of dollars range, its impact on the market was quite significant, indicating that 1INCH's market absorption capacity is relatively limited in the current environment.
Despite a high market capitalization, insufficient market depth has led to liquidity issues.
Yu Jin pointed out that before the large sell orders appeared, the price of 1 INCH was around $0.1385; as the sell-off was completed, the price quickly fell by about 7%, once hitting a low of $0.129.
However, it's worth noting that 1INCH, a mainstream DeFi token with a circulating market capitalization of approximately $180 million, has a significantly insufficient order book depth. A single sell order of less than $2 million can trigger such dramatic price fluctuations, highlighting the market's weak absorption capacity.
Yu Jin added that, taking the Binance 1INCH/USDT trading pair as an example, the total trading volume in 24 hours was approximately $1.5 million, of which over $1.16 million came from arbitrage bots rapidly arbitraging the sell-off, while the actual natural trading volume completed by ordinary investors was only about $340,000. This also shows that the current market liquidity is highly dependent on bot trading, with relatively limited actual buying power.
Beyond short-term shocks, investors need to pay more attention to fundamentals.
Overall, while this large-scale 1INCH sell-off caused a short-term price shock, its significance extends beyond the event itself, reflecting the widespread liquidity risks in the current Altcoin market. For investors, in addition to monitoring price movements, it's crucial to continuously pay attention to large on-chain transfers, project fundamentals, and changes in overall market sentiment.
