REPORT: Aptos' story so far in 2023...

Author: Jonny Huang

Aptos launched in October 2022 in the midst of a vicious cryptocurrency bear market. However, broader blockchain headwinds don't seem to have gotten in the way of this competing Move-based Layer 1 blockchain.

What is Aptos?

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AptosOriginally founded in 2021 by co-founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, Shaikh and Ching were both part of Meta's shuttered blockchain initiative, Novi, and brought a Meta-heavy team with them when they founded Aptos.

Aptoslabs.comDetails the majority of the Aptos team who are credited with developing the technological innovations that power the Aptos blockchain, including the original creators of the Move language, Move Prover, the BlockSTM parallel execution engine, and the Narwhal/Bullshark/Shoal consensus mechanism. They developed the Move object and parallel token standards to enable the simplest and most efficient developer experience.

Aptos is one of the most supported blockchain ecosystems in the cryptocurrency space today. According to Crunchbase, Aptos has raised a total of over $400 million in private funding through two rounds of funding, all of which took place in 2022.

Aptos has an impressive list of investors, including well-known names in Web2 and Web3 Venture Capital, such as Tiger Global, a16z, PayPal Ventures, Multicoin and Dragonfly Capital.

How does Aptos work?

Fundamentally, Aptos is a smart contract first-layer blockchain that uses the Meta-born Move language to build smart contracts.Aptos utilizes the well-known Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism for network validation, with a special emphasis on network scalability. 

Aptos scales using a method called parallel execution, where transactions are processed in parallel rather than sequentially, resulting in superior throughput and network capacity to handle large volumes of traffic.

Status of the Aptos Network

Aptos' total value lock

According to DefiLlama, Aptos currently has a total value of more than $50 million locked up in the network - $51.65 million at the time of writing. 

While such value is still overshadowed by Ether, with TVL currently over $22 billion, Aptos' numbers are not at all impressive for an ecosystem that is only 10 months old or launched a few weeks ago. The infamous FTX exchange crash. 

What's more, at the time of writing, Sui Network (perhaps Aptos' most competitive competitor) has a market capitalization of just $21 million.

It's also worth noting that Aptos' TVL has remained stable even during turbulent times in the cryptocurrency market, where most other blockchain ecosystems have seen such values plummet.

Aptos Network Analysis

have a quick lookAptos' web browser tool.Provides insight into the current state of the Aptos network from an activity and growth perspective. 

Over the course of a month, Aptos' volume has remained steady, typically ranging between 400,000 and 700,000 trades per day - a seemingly healthy number for an early-stage network that has gained traction and growth during a market downturn.

Of particular note, however, is the fact that on August 10 and August, the network realized approximately 1.5 million and 1.2 million transactions, respectively. Given Ether's daily transaction volume and its average of around 1 million transactions per day, Aptos reaching these levels, even if sporadically, could be seen as an encouraging indicator for the network.

In addition, the number of new accounts added to the network and other Aptos KPIs continue to grow. In the last month, the Aptos network typically added between 50,000 and 100,000 new accounts per day.

‍ Aptosecosystems

According to the Aptos ecosystem pagehttps://aptosfoundation.org/ecosystem/projects/allIn addition, there are nearly 80 Aptos-specific projects being built within the ecosystem. Below, we discuss just a handful that stand out in the networking space.

Thala:Thalais a decentralized financial application dedicated to Aptos. The protocol is responsible for Move Dollar ($MOD), Aptos' first and largest overcollateralized, decentralized stablecoin.However, it was launched in January 2023 at ThalaSwapThe exchange functionality was further introduced in, and was partly inspired by, Ether's Curve Finance model.

Shortly after the launch of the Aptos mainnet, Thala announced theA $6 million round of financingThe company has received investments from leading venture capital firms such as ParaFi Capital and Shima Capital.

Thala is particularly noteworthy for locking in a total value of more than $20 million. According to DefiLlama, this makes it the largest contributor to Aptos' own TVL of more than $50 million

LiquidSwap:LiquidSwapis Aptos' premier decentralized exchange/AMM. as of this writing, DEX's TVL is approaching $14 million, making it the second largest contributor to Aptos' locked-in value.

Like Thala, LiquidSwap is backed by some of the biggest names in the space, with investors like Mechanism Capital, Delphi Digital and Animoca Brands on its capital sheet. 

According to DefiLlama, LiquidSwap's cumulative volume since its launch in late 2022 (i.e., shortly after the launch of the Aptos mainnet itself) is approaching $130 million.

Topaz:Topazis currently the leading marketplace available for the sale and purchase of NFTs hosted on the Aptos network. 

Currently, Aptos Monkeys is the most traded Aptos NFT series with a cumulative volume of nearly 470,000 APT (~$2.76 million ~ CoinMarketCap), with the Aptomingos series in second place with just under 180,000 APT (~$1.06 million) ).

$APT: Aptos' Native Token

The primary use of the Aptos Native Token, $APT, is to pay the Network Gas Fee required to execute transactions on the Aptos Blockchain. 

However, because Aptos utilizes a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to validate transactions, potential validators must hold and pledge a certain number of $APT tokens in order to participate in the network and receive rewards for doing so. 

In addition, $APT constitutes the network's governance token, allowing holders to participate in key decisions, proposals, and changes that affect the entire ecosystem. 

$APT launched with the main network in October 2022, ostensibly due to the FTX crash and wider market downturn causing prices to plummet and reach an all-time high of around $18.81 in late January 2023.$APT is the most expensive and most widely used network in the world. The value of APT reached a staggering $3 billion.

Since then, perhaps due to the recent turmoil in the cryptocurrency market, $APT has fallen to its current price level of around $5.9. According to CoinMarketCap, its market capitalization currently stands at around $1.34 billion and its outstanding supply equates to a fully diluted valuation of over $6.2 billion.

Recent Aptos Updates

With the early momentum gained by the Move-centric blockchain, Aptos continues to source and announce more developments and partnerships. Here are just a few of their most recent.  

Aptos x Microsoft: August 2023, Aptos LabsdeclaresA partnership with Microsoft has been established especially to establish and develop the overlap between blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. 

The announcement announced plans to develop a variety of products with the tech giant, including financial solutions and artificial intelligence tools. 

Web3 Gaming:In recent days, Aptos furtherdeclaresPartnerships with Web3 gaming platform Intella X and Korean game publisher NEOWIZ. The announcement reflects Aptos' attitude towards creating a blockchain gaming ecosystem and lowering the barrier to entry. 

Aptos x Outlier Ventures: Aptos, in partnership with leading venture capital and gas pedal fund Outlier Ventures, recentlyannounced their participation in the joint Move-accelerator program.The goal is to incubate and facilitate the growth of projects built using the Aptos native Move programming language.

Aptos 2023 - Highlights

As with any project in the broader cryptocurrency industry, Aptos' growth could be crippled by unfavorable market conditions and sentiment, starting with the collapse of the FTX in late 2022 to the recent fall of BTC below the $26,000 mark on August 18th

. Nonetheless, Aptos has had an encouraging first 10 months in the blockchain ecosystem and has witnessed impressive metrics, prices, and developments throughout that period.

Its TVL is better than comparable networks, and its ecosystem of applications and events continues to expand and mature. Thanks to a number of recent exciting developments and partnerships, Aptos may be considered ready for a tough 2023 across the industry.

About the Author: Jonny Huang

Jonny has had a passion for blockchain for more than four years. Originally working in the media-side of the industry, he also has experience in blockchain, venture capital and private investment. Jonny believes that education is key to the mass adoption of decentralized technology and its advantages over centralized models. Jonny believes that education is key to the mass adoption of decentralized technology and its advantages over centralized models.