Anton Bukov, co-founder of 1inch, says he has stepped away from the protocol’s operations after more than seven years and is now launching a new venture, Second Tier. Bukov claims he was fired in late November 2025 after pushing for changes to management and company operations. He says he remains a co-founder and 50% shareholder but no longer has any operational authority, including responsibility for product architecture or security.
1inch posted a different timeline on X, saying Bukov “has not been actively involved in any associated organizations since December 2025.” The company’s statement stressed the split does not affect the operation of 1inch Network or its protocols. The firm has not publicly shared details of the internal discussions that led to the parting.
Co-founder Sergej Kunz moved quickly to reassure users, telling the community that Bukov’s departure “is not disrupting, will not disrupt, 1inch Network’s infrastructure or systems.” Kunz remains the public face of the protocol as it continues work on trading and liquidity products.
Bukov says user and colleague feedback prompted him to take a more active leadership role last year; he spent months refining his leadership and communication approach while pushing for organizational change. After describing his dismissal, he announced Second Tier, a new project he says he’s building with people who share his values. Public details about Second Tier’s products, funding and launch timetable remain limited.
The exit closes Bukov’s active operational role at a project he co-founded with Kunz in May 2019. Bukov was heavily involved in protocol architecture and security as 1inch evolved from a DEX aggregator into cross-chain trading tools and other DeFi infrastructure. In January, 1inch partnered with Rewardy Wallet to enable gasless cross-chain swaps across five blockchains via its Swap API — part of a push to simplify decentralized trading while keeping users in control of their assets.
The leadership change follows renewed scrutiny of 1inch-linked infrastructure security. In May, TrustedVolumes lost about $5.87 million after an attacker exploited a custom RFQ swap proxy; that incident did not affect the standard 1inch user swap route. In the wake of broader DeFi stress, Kunz has called for safer lending structures.
For now, Bukov is stepping away from day-to-day operations and product oversight, while 1inch maintains that its systems and ongoing development are unaffected. Second Tier’s launch will be watched closely by the DeFi community given Bukov’s technical background and the unresolved details around his departure.
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