Anton Bukov, a co-founder of decentralized crypto exchange aggregator 1inch, revealed in a Thursday post on X that the company fired him in late November 2025 after he pushed for changes to its management and internal communication.
- Still, as Bukov says, he remains a co-founder and 50% shareholder but no longer participates in operations or oversees 1inch's product architecture and security.
Bukov's status as a founder isn't in dispute. He and Sergej Kunz created the first 1inch prototype at a New York hackathon in May 2019, according to the company's official history.
Bukov said his role focused on protocol architecture, security and economic design, including work on 1inch Router, Fusion and its cross-chain swap technology.
- Now, he's launching Second Tier, a new DeFi project that promises to build infrastructure connecting users' financial intentions with on-chain execution.
- Bukov didn't disclose funding, launch date or business model.
An official X account for 1inch shortly confirmed the change, saying "Anton Bukov is no longer contributing to the 1inch project and has not been actively involved in any associated organizations since December 2025."
According to 1inch, its products have processed more than $808 billion across 263 million swaps involving 27 million connected wallets.