How to Trade for $0 in Fees on 1inch Fusion

Before we get started, this is not a recommendation or endorsement to buy any token mentioned. 

Once upon a time, we all yearned to trade on DEXs (decentralized exchanges) for free! Just a year ago, gas prices were unimaginably painful on Ethereum Mainnet. As early DeFi adopters, we received some relief from the network congestion offloading to Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum and alternative L1s like Avalanche. However, it’s a rare moment when we can choose to trade certain tokens on any L2 or L1 and so we find ourselves most reliant on better trading experiences powered by multichain DEX aggregators like 1inch.

Previously, we covered another favored DEX aggregator–CoWSwap. This meta DEX aggregator allows you to swap tokens using gasless orders, paid in the underlying token, that are settled peer-to-peer or into any on-chain liquidity source while providing MEV protection. CoWSwap was an instant hit since its launch in April 2021 because of the combined benefits to trade at the best rates, avoid paying gas fees in ETH, and avoiding becoming victims of MEV (maximal extractable value) with failed swaps. Ever since CoWSwap’s launch, the UX of the leading DEX aggregator by trade volume (1inch) felt subpar in comparison.

Thankfully, as of December 22, 2022, 1inch has deployed a new product called Fusion, which mirrors many of the benefits we love on CoWSwap. 1inch users can still swap tokens on various DEXes at the most favorable rates, but without paying network fees and with MEV protection. The Fusion upgrade should be well received by the 3.7M wallets executing over 24.9M trades.