In This Article
Aptos (APT) is a blockchain from a failed cryptocurrency project created by Meta (formerly Facebook). Today, Aptos has grown to rank among the top 50 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world. There is high expectation among investors and supporters who see Aptos as a next-generation layer one (L1) blockchain designed to outperform older rivals such as Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). So, are you interested in learning what Aptos is? You have come to the right place. In this Aptos crypto review, we will cover everything from the project’s origins to APT tokenomics.
Key Takeaways
- Aptos is a proof-of-stake (PoS) L1 blockchain that uses the Move programming language.
- The blockchain is built to maximize network throughput with the use of parallel transaction execution and block metadata ordering.
- Aptos is built with a modular design to allow the protocol to implement frequent and instant upgrades with minimal interruptions.
- However, Aptos has not yet been tested under full-stress conditions like Ethereum and Solana have.
- Max recorded throughput on Aptos has been 12,933 TPS, according to Chainspect.
99Bitcoins’ Take on Aptos (APT) Crypto Project
Aptos is one of many new-age L1 blockchains that claim to possess scalability potential beyond the reach of established chain such as Ethereum. Aptos features innovative designs like parallel transaction processing, allowing the network to offer faster transactions at lower costs. At the same time, its modular architecture and use of Move programming language make it developer-friendly and easily customizable.
This L1 blockchain has amassed a total value locked (TVL) of over $1 billion, which showcases its growing popularity among on-chain users. Traditional finance giants such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have issued real-world assets (RWA) on the chain. We think that Aptos is an important L1 project to monitor. Experts have even called it a “potential disruptor” in the L1 sector.
Aptos (APT) Review: Summary
We will begin this article by explaining some technical terms you need to know to better understand this cryptocurrency. Then, we will discuss the details about the Aptos blockchain, its origin story, and its founding team.
The second half of the article will cover all you need to know about the tokenomics and utility of the APT token. We will also discuss the pros and cons of the Aptos blockchain, on-chain metrics and tell you what experts think about the project. Towards the end of the article, you will find crypto wallet recommendations for storing APT.
Terms You Need to Know Before Understanding Aptos
What is Aptos (APT)?
Aptos is a proof-of-stake (PoS) L1 blockchain that uses the Move programming language for fast and secure transaction execution. It is the successor of the Diem (formerly known as Libra), a blockchain project incubated by Meta that planned to host a “low-volatility cryptocurrency.” The Diem project ultimately failed to launch due to regulatory backlash.
In 2021, a group of researchers and engineers from the Diem project created a public blockchain called Aptos, which utilized a programming language called Move, originally designed for the Diem blockchain.
Aptos uses a modular blockchain architecture to achieve high throughput and low latency. This design enables Aptos to process multiple transactions simultaneously and allows the blockchain to implement frequent and instant upgrades with minimal interruptions, according to the Aptos whitepaper,
The Aptos vision is to deliver a blockchain that can bring mainstream adoption to Web3 and empower an ecosystem of decentralized applications to solve real-world user problems. Our mission is to advance the state-of-the-art in blockchain reliability, safety, and performance by providing a flexible and modular blockchain architecture.
History of Aptos Crypto
The idea for the Aptos Layer 1 blockchain emerged after the Diem project was abandoned following regulatory scrutiny in Europe, the U.S., and other countries.
At the time, Meta had established an organization called the Diem Association to oversee the development of the Diem blockchain and a low-volatility cryptocurrency backed by a reserve made up of a basket of fiat currencies, including the U.S. dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, and Singapore Dollar. At one point, the Diem Association had notable members, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal. However, by January 2022, the Diem Association was shut down and sold to Silvergate Bank.
On February 24, 2022, Mo Shaikh, co-founder of Aptos, published an introductory blog post declaring the day the “genesis of Aptos.” On October 12, 2022, the project launched its mainnet and its native token, APT.
In March 2022, Aptos raised $200 million in a seed funding round led by Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), followed by a strategic investment round by Binance Labs. In July 2022, the project raised $150 million in a Series A round led by Jump Crypto and FTX Ventures. Further strategic investment rounds were conducted by Binance Labs, DragonFly Capital, and Foresight Ventures.
About the Aptos Crypto Team
Aptos was co-founded by Mo Shaikh, Avery Ching, and a group of researchers and engineers who had previously worked on the Diem project. According to Shaikh’s LinkedIn profile, he is an alumnus of Hunter College and the University of Rochester. Shaikh’s past work experience was at KPMG, BlackRock, BCG, ConsenSys, and Meta.
Ching is the current CEO of Aptos Labs, the organization that supports the development of the Aptos blockchain. Ching graduated from Northwestern University, completing a PhD in computer engineering. He led the crypto platform team at Meta and worked on the Diem blockchain project.
Other founding members of Aptos Labs are David Wolinksky (Head Architect), Rati Gelashivilli (Research Scientist), Rustie Lin (Production Engineer), Sasha Spiegelman (Head of Research), Sital Kedia (Software Engineer), and Zekun Li (Head of Blockchain).
Vision of Aptos: What Problems Does Aptos Solve?
Aptos wants to be the most performant and scalable L1 blockchain in the market, while remaining decentralized and permissionless.
Ethereum (ETH), the world’s most valuable smart contract blockchain, has a scalability issue. The network is often plagued with high gas fees and slow transactions during high-traffic periods. Meanwhile, performant blockchains such as Solana (SOL) have faced frequent outages, and the public frequently raises questions about their decentralization.
Aptos aims to address these challenges by building its blockchain in a novel way, such as by using the Move programming language. According to Aptos, Move makes Aptos more developer-friendly, highly secure, gas-efficient, and customizable than other blockchains. The blockchain’s modular architecture and parallel transaction processing design allow it to achieve high network throughput. The project is targeting throughput over 1 million TPS.
To solve gas fee spikes experienced during non-fungible token (NFT) mint, Aptos developed a technology called “aggregators,” which allows Aptos to process transactions in parallel while maintaining the order of the transactions. Remember, some NFTs are in high demand, come in limited quantities, and are distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Aptos (APT) Tokenomics
The Aptos token, or APT, is the native cryptocurrency of the Aptos blockchain. In this section, we will cover everything you need to know about the APT token, from its supply and distribution to its utility and governance powers.
APT Token Supply
The APT token launched on October 12, 2022, when the Aptos Mainnet went live. An initial total supply of 1 billion tokens was created. The minimal unit of the APT token is called Octa. Here is a breakdown of the APT token supply, according to data compiled by CoinMarketCap:
- Max supply: Infinite
- Total supply: 1.14 billion tokens
- Circulating supply: 630.49 million tokens
APT Coin Distribution & Allocation
Here is how the initial total supply of 1 billion APT tokens was distributed at genesis:
Category
% of Initial Total Supply
Number of Tokens
Community
51.02%
510.217 million tokens
Core contributors
19%
190 million tokens
Foundation
16.50%
165 million tokens
Investors
13.48%
134.782 million tokens
From the 675.217 million APT tokens allocated to the community and Foundation, 410.217 million tokens are held by the Aptos Foundation, and Aptos Labs hold 100 million. 324.782 million APT tokens allocated to investors and current core contributors are subject to a four-year lock-up schedule from the mainnet launch.
APT Utility & Use Cases
APT token is used for various purposes like –
- Gas fees: Users pay transaction fees using the APT token.
- Staking: To participate in consensus, validator nodes must stake a minimum of 1 million APT tokens.
- Block rewards: Validators earn rewards paid in APT tokens for participating in consensus.
- Delegated staking: APT token holders can delegate their tokens to a validator to stake them on their behalf.
- Governance: APT holders can stake their tokens to vote and propose a network upgrade.
Governance & Protocol Control
Aptos implements an on-chain governance process by which APT token holders can create and vote on network improvement proposals. These proposals can include changes to the blockchain parameters, core blockchain code, bug fixes, and deployment of new frameworks.
To propose or vote, you must stake your APT tokens. You do not have to run a validator node. For a proposal to pass, Aptos governance requires a minimal number of votes to be cast by an expiration date. If more than 50% of the total supply of APT tokens votes, the proposal can be executed without waiting for the full voting period.
APT holders can participate in governance by directly staking themselves or delegating their tokens to a third-party validator.
How Does Aptos Crypto Work?
In this section, we will explain how the Aptos Network functions. We will cover everything from the blockchain to the token structure.
Architecture Behind the APT Coin
The APT coin is central to the functioning of the Aptos Network. The token facilitates transaction processing via gas fee payment, enables on-chain governance, and plays a role in the network’s security via staking.
All transactions on Aptos require the user to pay a processing fee called a gas fee. This fee is denominated in APT tokens. A part of every gas fee payment incurred on Aptos is burned permanently, while the rest is paid to validators for including transactions in newly created blocks.
Validators are required to stake a minimum amount of APT tokens to participate in consensus. Each validator’s voting weight and block reward weight are proportional to the amount of APT they stake. When it comes to governance, a minimum APT staking requirement to vote and propose new upgrades prevents spam.
Aptos Blockchain Structure
The Aptos blockchain consists of a set of validators that receive and process user transactions. The network’s validator set uses a byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to agree on the ledger’s state.
Aside from the validators, the Aptos blockchain has participants known as full nodes. These nodes always keep a copy of all the transactions conducted on the blockchain and re-execute them to identify any malicious and fraudulent activity from validators. Meanwhile, light clients perform a similar function to full nodes but only keep a part of the blockchain ledger locally to minimize hardware requirements. Anyone can run a full node or a light client on Aptos.
Token Standards & Smart Contracts
Smart contracts on Aptos are written in Move. According to Aptos, Move allows developers to write programs that flexibly manage and transfer assets while providing security against attacks.
Here are the token standards used in Aptos:
- Digital Asset (DA) standard: DA is an NFT standard representing unique assets on-chain. These assets can be customized to be transferred or burned via their smart contracts.
- Aptos Fungible Asset Standard (FA): FA is a token standard that allows developers to create fungible assets. It is used to create dApp tokens, governance tokens, and native tokens.
- Confidential Asset Standard (CA): CA allows developers to create privacy-preserving fungible tokens. It allows users to hide transaction amounts while keeping sender and recipient addresses publicly visible.
Scalability & Performance
To maximize network throughput, the Aptos blockchain divides transaction processing into completely independent separate stages. Block metadata ordering is one of the key blockchain improvements implemented by Aptos, where the network decouples non-agreement-related tasks out of the consensus phase.
The Aptos blockchain is specifically designed to maximize transaction parallel execution. Using the Move programming language and a unique data model, the blockchain allows transactions that do not have overlapping conflicts to be processed simultaneously. Meanwhile, the Block-STM parallel execution engine detects and manages the conflicts for an ordered set of transactions.
In February 2025, Aptos Lab introduced an execution engine called Shardines to unlock “infinite scalability” on Aptos. The feature will enable horizontal scalability and will allow the blockchain to achieve 1 million transactions per second with non-conflicting transactions.
Aptos Blockchain Features
Benefits: Drawbacks: In this section, we analyze APT tokens to learn how they have performed over the years. We will examine some key on-chain metrics and market capitalization growth, and see what experts say about the project. Here are interesting stats and key on-chain metrics that APT investors will find insightful: All of this reflects that the blockchain has been doing well on its part. In a research report, crypto asset management firm Bitwise said that, unlike other blockchain platforms that emerged from a “crypto boom,” Aptos was born from “the intellectual capital and lessons” learned from Meta’s Diem project. The asset management first further states, Aptos aims to carve out a distinct niche in the blockchain ecosystem by combining the scalability of Solana, the security of Ethereum, and a more centralised governance model … The blockchain industry is entering what we identify as its “stress-test” phase. While Ethereum has positioned itself as a settlement layer supporting Layer-2 solutions, Aptos offers a different value proposition. Modular chains such as Ethereum focus on verifiability and decentralization, while integrated chains like Aptos optimise for low latency and high throughput. Bitwise’s Aptos price prediction for 2030 saw the APT token price ranging from $6.09 in a bear case thesis to $257,769.68 in a bull case thesis. In their research report, asset manager VanEck compared Aptos and Sui (SUI) – two L1 blockchains that use the Move programming language. The company said, We believe that Aptos’s edge in designed flexibility and arguably more robust chain architecture may prove to be competitive advantages. While Sui has a substantial lead in many economic metrics, including TVL, DEX volumes, and transaction fees, this dynamic can quickly shift. VanEck said that the APT token price could increase to $7.30 by the end of 2030. Check out 99Bitcoins’ Aptos price prediction, featuring in-depth technical analysis and key market insights to know where APT will be headed in the next five years. Both VanEck and Bitwise were bullish on the growth of the Aptos ecosystem, with the former calling it a “potential disruptor in the Layer-1 space.” The blockchain’s use of innovative technologies such as Move language and parallel processing has brought in new competition in the L1 sector that has long been dominated by a few players, namely Ethereum and Solana. While Aptos is touted as a strong contender to challenge the L1 hierarchy, readers have to note that Aptos is yet to be tested under full-stress conditions, and most of its scalability and performance upgrades remain theoretical. If you are optimistic about the future of the Aptos network, you should analyze the project thoroughly before deciding to buy APT. Remember, cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and risky investment assets. Investors should always conduct their own research before investing in cryptocurrencies. Your decision to buy the APT token will ultimately depend on your research, outlook for the project, risk tolerance, available capital, and financial goals. You can always choose to buy and store Aptos cryptocurrencies on popular centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX) such as Binance and Bybit. However, CEX platforms do not give users full control and ownership over their digital assets. In contrast, non-custodial crypto wallets locally hold the private keys that give access to crypto tokens in a way that only the wallet owner can control them. Here are the top crypto wallets that you can download for free or buy online to store and manage your APT tokens and other Aptos-based digital assets. When it comes to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, no project is safe from becoming obsolete. The emergence of new-age L1 blockchains such as Aptos has alarmed Ethereum and Solana maxis, who may have thought that the L1 race was done and dusted. Equipped with innovative technologies and modern designs, such as parallel transaction execution and Move programming language, Aptos is a force to be reckoned with. However, the project must prove that it can outperform older chains under real-world conditions and not just in theory. See Also: Aptos uses a unique programming language called Move. It also features innovative designs and processes, such as parallel transaction processing, that allows the network to offer faster transactions at lower costs Move is a programming language created by developers working on a crypto project called Diem (formerly Libra) which was headed by Meta (Facebook). Aptos was co-founded by Mo Shaikh, Avery Ching and a group of researchers and engineers who had previously worked on the Diem project. Aptos achieves scalability through its parallel execution engine (Block-STM), which processes multiple transactions simultaneously. APT token is used for on-chain governance, gas fee payment, and staking. You can buy APT tokens on centralized exchanges such as Binance and Bybit. You can also buy it on decentralized exchanges using your non-custodial crypto wallet. Some Aptos-compatible crypto wallets are Petra, OKX Wallet, Ledger Flex, Ledger Stax, and Trust Wallet. No, Aptos is not EVM compatible as it uses a unique programming language called Move with its own virtual machine. Yes, Aptos supports smart contract, therefore it can support dApps. Aptos processes around 56 transactions per second (TPS) in real-time, with peak performance reaching up to 12,933 TPS. Established in 2013, 99Bitcoin’s team members have been crypto experts since Bitcoin’s Early days. Weekly Research Monthly readers Expert contributors Crypto Projects Reviewed
Drawbacks & Benefits of Aptos blockchain
Aptos (APT) Coin’s Analytics
On-Chain Metrics
What Do Experts Think About APT?
Is Aptos Crypto a Buy?
Best Aptos Wallets
Conclusion: What is Aptos (APT)?
References
FAQs
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