1inch Co-Founder Anton Bukov Exits Operations and Launches Second Tier

1inch co-founder Anton Bukov has publicly confirmed his departure from the protocol’s operations and launched a new DeFi infrastructure company called Second Tier.

Bukov said he was removed in late November 2025 after disagreements over strategic direction, communication and leadership. He retains his co-founder title and a 50% shareholding but no longer participates in company operations, product architecture, security design or protocol oversight.

The split followed months of internal discussions after Bukov sought a larger role in management. He described the separation as a mature founder split rather than a response to one product decision, while saying technical execution and leadership standards had become equally important to his view of a sustainable crypto company.

1inch disputed Bukov’s description of the departure as a firing. The company said he was not a direct employee and therefore could not have been terminated in that capacity.

1inch Says Protocol Strategy Remains Unchanged

1inch confirmed that Bukov has not been actively involved since December 2025, placing the timing several weeks later than his account.

The protocol said its infrastructure, products and core systems continue operating normally under co-founder and CEO Sergej Kunz and the existing leadership team. Its strategy and development roadmap remain unchanged.

Bukov credited his work at 1inch with helping develop the protocol’s routing architecture, Fusion execution model, trustless cross-chain swaps and Aqua shared-liquidity system. 1inch rejected the suggestion that he alone led those systems, describing architecture and security development as a team effort with separate technical leadership.

The disagreement creates a sharper break than the recent Base App leadership transfer to Cobie. Jesse Pollak retained control of the Base blockchain and delegated the consumer app so he could concentrate on trading, payments, stablecoins and AI-agent infrastructure. Bukov has no continuing operational authority over 1inch.

Second Tier Targets DeFi Execution Infrastructure

Bukov positioned Second Tier as an independent infrastructure company rather than a decentralized exchange, aggregator or direct attempt to compete with 1inch.

Its founding manifesto describes systems intended to reduce the distance between economic intent and execution without relying on intermediaries, settlement delays or opaque permissions. The project lists sovereignty, architecture, openness and integrity as its core operating principles.