Several wallets holding previously vested 1INCH dumped tens of millions of tokens through CoW Protocol on Tuesday, 27 January, triggering a sharp intraday repricing that erased roughly 15–17% off the token’s value.
What happened
- Onchain sleuthing from Arkham shows multiple wallets routing large 1INCH → USDC swaps through CoW Protocol in a short window. The biggest single leg visible moved about 14 million 1INCH, with additional tranches bringing the total sold to roughly 36.36 million tokens—around $5 million at prevailing prices.
- The trades were split into several executions rather than one big block, a common tactic to manage slippage and limit immediate market impact. Execution via CoW, which aggregates cross-venue liquidity, also suggests sellers were attempting price-efficient settlement.
Who sold
- Historical inflows show these wallets received tokens from 1inch vesting contracts one to two years ago, implying the sellers were likely early investors, contributors or insiders liquidating vested allocations—not new spot-market entrants.
Market impact
- Price action and onchain timing line up closely. 1INCH was trading near $0.14 before collapsing to about $0.115–$0.118 within hours, a drop of approximately 15–17% (TradingView).
- CoinMarketCap data shows 24-hour trading volume surged to roughly $62.2 million—up more than 370% day-on-day—pushing the volume-to-market-cap ratio above 36%, a level often associated with forced repricing or concentrated distribution.
- The reported sales equal about 2.6% of the circulating supply (1.41 billion 1INCH) and represent roughly 8% of the day’s dollar trading volume.
Context and caveats
- There was no fresh token unlock tied to this activity; CoinMarketCap indicates most of 1INCH’s supply is already unlocked, reinforcing that these sales drew from previously vested holdings.
- While the timing and scale of the swaps strongly correlate with the price drop, onchain evidence alone cannot prove direct causality. Still, 1INCH has been trending lower since November, leaving liquidity thinner and price more sensitive to concentrated selling.
- Taken together, the data points to a bout of distribution by vested holders during a vulnerable market phase—likely amplifying liquidity stress and precipitating a rapid repricing rather than a slow, sentiment-led decline.
Disclaimer
AMBCrypto’s content is informational only and not investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading carries high risk—conduct your own research before making any decisions. © 2026 AMBCrypto
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