1inch launches a US DeFi education campaign

The next generation of business leaders is heading on-chain - but universities need to keep up.

1inch is launching 1inch Forward, a US education campaign designed to close that gap. It starts with an open letter to educators and continues with a campus tour across top universities.

Student demand for crypto and blockchain courses is surging. But most programs still focus on theory, not real-world DeFi. That leaves a gap between what students learn and what the industry actually needs - from tokenization to cross-border payments.

Interest in crypto jobs surges

The signal is clear: interest is accelerating fast. In 2025/26 searches for “crypto jobs” more than doubled year-on-year, while “DeFi developer jobs” surged nearly 3x.

“The 84% surge in blockchain job searches across the US shows that the next generation is already looking toward careers in the future of finance,” said Sergej Kunz, 1inch co-founder. “The responsibility now sits with industry and educators to ensure talent has the skills and access needed to participate. By upskilling the workforce of tomorrow, we can unlock DeFi’s full potential and help shape a more open financial system,” 

“As blockchain technology adoption accelerates across the finance industry,” added Gil Rosen, President of Stanford Blockchain Accelerator and Founder of Blockchain Builders Fund. “It is precisely the innovation and research born in universities like Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, and others on scalability, cryptographic security, verifiability, consensus, privacy, and more that have brought the sector the resilience and maturity to be enterprise ready for the $40 trn finance sector.”

Touring US universities

The best way to explain what DeFi is to young talent is by meeting university students in person.

To that end, 1inch is launching a US campus tour, kicking off at the University of Pennsylvania on March 27, followed by Yale University on April 10 and Cornell Tech on April 24, 2026. These events will feature curated panels, pitch sessions, mentorship and direct recruitment opportunities.

More campus visits will take place throughout 2026, including the University of Michigan in October, Harvard University, Indiana University in April and Stanford University via its Stanford Blockchain Accelerator for Sustainable Solutions (BASS) in June.

A career path to DeFi

Beyond each campus visit, 1inch Forward opens a direct line to careers in DeFi. The traditional finance path is well mapped — DeFi isn’t.

Students will be able to ask questions, share CVs for feedback and get early insights into the industry ahead of each event. On campus, they’ll also have the chance for one-on-one conversations with the 1inch team.

The goal is simple: make a career in DeFi clear and accessible for the next generation.

A call on schools to embrace blockchain

In an open letter published today, a coalition of over 20 decentralized finance organizations and policy groups, headed by 1inch, encouraged top business and law schools in the US to include digital assets, blockchain, and decentralized finance in their curriculum. 

The open letter argues that decentralized finance is no longer a fringe technology but is becoming increasingly prominent in the global financial landscape, with top institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and JPMorgan exploring it and warns that unless finance and law curricula keep pace with developments in the field, graduates risk becoming obsolete. 

The coalition seeks to improve digital asset literacy by providing foundational blockchain knowledge, DeFi systems and regulatory systems, and engaging with live systems on-chain, and is willing to collaborate with these institutions in providing guest lectures, research, case studies and internships.

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