What 1inch’s Unite DeFi Singapore Revealed About DeFi’s Future

Unite DeFi is a flagship initiative by 1inch to bring together builders, protocols, and liquidity across decentralized finance through shared infrastructure and interoperability. The program embodies 1inch’s mission to make DeFi simpler, safer, and more connected—bridging the gap between on-chain innovation and global finance.

Earlier this month, 1inch held another edition of Unite DeFi as part of TOKEN2049 Singapore Week, hosted at the ArtScience Museum alongside partners Infinex, BOB, and Bitget Wallet. The one-day conference featured leading figures, including Stani Kulechov (Aave Labs) and Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon Foundation), alongside 1inch co-founders Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov.

BeInCrypto had the opportunity to be at the event, and here are the key takeaways from 1inch’s Unite DeFi Singapore.

RWAs: The $32B Bridge Between TradFi and DeFi

The morning at Unite DeFi Singapore opened with a look at the real-world assets (RWA) sector. Aggregated data from rwa.xyz and other on-chain dashboards estimate the total RWA market at roughly $32 billion as of October 2025, with $25.3 billion concentrated in tokenized treasuries and private credit. That dominance dwarfs commodities at $3.2 billion and equities at $400 million, showing investors’ pivot toward yield-bearing stability.

Panelists, such as Fredrik Haga, co-founder of Dune, and Kiln CEO Laszlo Szabo, agreed that RWAs have become DeFi’s institutional bridge.

“They [asset managers] essentially bypass some banking services and increase massively distribution,” Szabo said.

Roberto Klein of Backed Finance pushed back against the assumption that DeFi’s growth must come at banks’ expense, calling tokenization “a generational shift.” The change, he said, is additive, finance expanding onto open rails rather than one system replacing another.

With rate cuts drawing liquidity back on-chain, RWAs are now doing for DeFi what sovereign bonds do for traditional portfolios. They anchor volatility and provide predictable returns through transparent, programmable debt.

As the discussion turned to liquidity infrastructure, consensus emerged around one constant — stablecoins. They remain the connective tissue linking tokenized assets to daily use, the familiar form carrying a new function, the on-ramp through which institutions finally step into DeFi.

67% Hot Wallet Vulnerabilities Demand Hardware Shields

Data shared onstage showed that 67% of hacks originate from hot wallets, while half stem from social engineering tactics like sharing seed recovery phrases (SRPs), according to Jeff of Ledger and Eowyn Chen of Trust Wallet. AI risk scanners have intercepted roughly $460 million in attempted scams. Yet, an estimated 70% of users still ignore warnings, sparking debate over how far platforms should go in balancing safety and autonomy.

Chen summarized the dilemma succinctly: “Balance censorship minimization with user protection.” The panel outlined frameworks separating security “at rest” (secure storage) from “at use” (safe signing), emphasizing how hardware wallets’ “trusted screens” serve as verification checkpoints — the crypto equivalent of a bank’s fraud alert.

Against the backdrop of various incidents, panelists agreed that education, not fear, remains DeFi’s strongest defense. Fewer rugs and stronger reputations have already improved baseline security; scaling that awareness to billions will determine whether DeFi’s renaissance endures.

Interoperability Becomes DeFi’s Next Race for Scale

Interoperability took center stage as the antidote to DeFi’s silos. During a discussion, panelists explored how intent-based swaps and cross-chain aggregation could make DeFi feel as seamless as Web2 apps. Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch, said users increasingly “just want to make sure that they get what they expect.” He argued that abstraction is essential to mainstream growth.

Additionally, Sandeep Nailwal, CEO of Polygon Labs, remarked that “block space has become infinite,” pointing to Polygon’s upcoming scaling architecture that allows protocols to reserve and aggregate throughput across connected chains. He described this as a way to remove the bottlenecks that once fragmented DeFi liquidity, creating a shared infrastructure where execution feels boundless.

Misha Putiatin, Symbiotic’s co-founder, added that abstraction layers now let “users see one optimized quote.” The debate over transaction finality, or “sturdy transactions” as he phrased it, revealed ongoing friction between speed and certainty.

The rise of app-specific chains like Hyperliquid may finally harmonize these trade-offs, stitching fragmented networks into a single interoperable system. For institutions seeking efficiency without exposure, interoperability now represents the missing piece between liquidity depth and user trust.

Maturity Over Cycles as Path to DeFi Renaissance

In one of the discussions at the Unite DeFi event, some panelists remarked that DeFi is entering a phase of quiet maturity. Volumes and total value locked (TVL) have surpassed prior bull cycles despite the perception of a “boring” market.

Anton Bukov, co-founder of 1inch, noted, “Higher volumes and TVL than prior bull runs despite that ‘boring’ perception.”

He added that the difference lies in discipline. Fewer exploits, better audits, and a stronger reputation economy are now replacing reckless yield-chasing. According to Bukov, this pragmatism mirrors 1inch’s own rebrand, which dropped the unicorn motif for a cleaner identity focused on gasless swaps (Fusion) and capital-efficient architecture (Aqua).

It signals a market less driven by hype and more by sustainable tools. Even past misjudgments, such as Kain Warwick’s infamous “ETH to $10K in 2017” prediction mentioned jokingly onstage, now read as lessons in realism.

Additionally, panelists agreed that DeFi’s future will be built by operators who treat risk, not speculation, as the new alpha.

Values and Legitimacy: Ethereum’s Human Core

Aya Miyaguchi, president of the Ethereum Foundation, joined the event for a fireside chat that shifted the discussion from liquidity and throughput to inclusion and legitimacy. Her message reminded the audience why Ethereum exists: to expand access and opportunity through technology.

“When I met Bitcoin, I thought this would be really revolutionary in the space of financial inclusion or microfinance,” she said. “It is about including those who were not included before… restoring the balance.”

She described Ethereum as a shared public good that “belongs to no one precisely because it belongs to everyone,” noting how that principle is beginning to shape real systems, from decentralized IDs to land registries and stablecoins now being explored by governments.

Still, she said the biggest gap lies in understanding. “It’s really about better education,” she told the audience, urging regulators and builders alike to pair innovation with comprehension. “It is necessary for this technology to do the role that it’s supposed to do.”

Referencing Vitalik Buterin’s belief that “the most important scarce resource is legitimacy,” Miyaguchi called on the DeFi community to protect that legitimacy together. She explained that the Ethereum Foundation does not control the network. Its role is to preserve neutrality and empower others to build.

Her closing thought landed quietly yet firmly. The future of decentralized finance depends on whether the people building it can keep its values intact as it scales.

The DeFi Horizon: From 2% to Billions Through Unity

Across panels, one throughline emerged. DeFi is unifying. Tokenized assets are stabilizing yields, security frameworks are restoring trust, intent layers are simplifying UX, and interoperability is dissolving silos. Collectively, these advances aim to lift crypto’s global penetration from 2% to the next billion users.

But growth will demand a balance between innovation and regulation, privacy and compliance, simplicity and depth. As interest rates fall and institutions scale on-chain exposure from RWAs to $1 billion DeFi loans like Morpho’s, the path ahead looks less speculative and more infrastructural.

In Singapore’s charged atmosphere, Unite DeFi ended with a sense of conviction and purpose rather than hype. DeFi is moving from niche experiment to financial necessity, one interoperable layer at a time.

For those who missed the live sessions, you can watch the panel discussions from Unite DeFi Singapore here:

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