What is Aptos (APT)?

What is Aptos, which we have heard a lot about in the crypto world recently? In short, Aptos is a new generation layer-1 blockchain platform that stands out with its high-speed and scalable structure. In other words, it is an independent blockchain with its own network like Ethereum or Solana, and the native cryptocurrency of this network is called Aptos coin or APT with its symbol. Especially with its launch in 2022, many people wondered “What is Aptos coin?”. The aim of Aptos is to bring blockchain technology to a wider audience and to make the Web3 infrastructure more secure, fast and user-friendly. In doing so, it uses innovative technologies such as the Move programming language inherited from Facebook's former crypto project Diem.

The team behind Aptos takes a very sincere approach to the development of the project. So while the technical details are deep, the Aptos community and developers aim to create a “us to them” environment. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide to what Aptos does, its history, technological features and value. We will also touch on the founders of Aptos and frequently asked questions, and try to answer your questions such as “What does Aptos do?”.

Aptos Definition and Origin

Aptos is described as a high-speed, scalable layer-1 blockchain. What does this mean? It means that Aptos runs on its own main network and is designed to process a large number of transactions per second. Its main goal is to address the scalability and security challenges in the blockchain world. The Aptos project was founded in 2021, and interestingly, it was born from the ashes of Meta (formerly Facebook)'s failed Diem (Libra) project. The team that founded Aptos are actually former engineers who worked on Meta's cryptocurrency initiative.

So if you ask, “Who founded Aptos?”, the answer is Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching. The duo left Meta in 2021 to found Aptos Labs and start developing this new blockchain. Thanks to their experience at Meta, they had significant know-how in building an enterprise-scale infrastructure.

One of the things that makes Aptos special is that it uses the Move programming language for transactions. Move is a smart contract language developed for Facebook's Diem project, which was later made open source. The biggest advantage of this language is its focus on security and source control. In smart contracts written in Move, digital assets are defined as “resources”. This makes it almost impossible to copy a token, use it in two different transactions at the same time, or accidentally destroy it. In short, Move provides transaction security by preventing errors that are common in other blockchain languages. On the other hand, Move also offers flexibility to developers and works with lower transaction fees. Since smart contracts on the Aptos network are written in this language, Aptos' infrastructure is secure and fault-tolerant.

The vision of Aptos is to take Web3 infrastructure to a new level. In other words, to provide a platform where decentralized applications (dApps) and crypto projects can run smoothly in the background, and users don't have to worry about speed or security. The Aptos team drew on both past experience and new ideas to answer the question “How can Layer-1 blockchain be better?”. As a result, by 2022, the Aptos network emerged and turned heads in the crypto world.

History of Aptos: Important Milestones

Although Aptos is a very young project, it has experienced many important developments in a short period of time. Here are some of the most important milestones in Aptos coin history:

• In 2021, the foundations of APT were laid: The foundations of the project were laid. With Meta's Diem project on the shelf, Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, who worked on that project, started developing their own independent blockchains. Aptos Labs was founded and the first concepts were created.
• In the spring of 2022, it received huge investments from industry giants: Aptos attracted the attention of major investors even before it went mainnet. In March 2022, a seed investment round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global and Multicoin Capital raised nearly $200 million. It then raised a further $150 million in a Series A round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto in July 2022. In this way, Aptos received a strong financial backing with over $350 million in total investment even before its mainnet was launched. Binance Labs even made a strategic investment in the project in September 2022, raising Aptos' valuation. This investment news fueled interest in Aptos in the crypto community.
• October 2022 saw the launch: The mainnet of the Aptos blockchain was launched. It was called “Aptos Autumn” and the Aptos network was officially launched. October 17, 2022 was recorded as the Aptos mainnet date. With the opening of the mainnet, Aptos coin (APT) started to be listed on major crypto exchanges. APT started trading on platforms such as Binance and Coinbase, and the APT coin price experienced high volatility in the early days. In the early days of the network, the Aptos team thanked the community by distributing an airdrop totaling 20 million APT coins to early adopters who participated in the testnet process. With this airdrop, each eligible user received 150 APT tokens (this airdrop was worth around $1200 at initial prices). Soon, APT's market capitalization reached a billion dollars. So for those who ask “When did Aptos come out?” in this period, we can say October 2022 as the answer.
• Between 2022 and 2023, many Aptos-based projects were launched: With the launch of the mainnet, the Aptos ecosystem started to develop rapidly. Aptos Explorer, the network's own block explorer, was launched. Similarly, Aptos Names, a domain name service (a system for mapping users' wallet addresses to legitimate names) was announced. Various wallets (Petra, Martian, etc.) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) were developed by the community. For example, a DEX application such as Liquidswap by Pontem Network was implemented on Aptos. During this period, NFT marketplaces, gaming projects and DeFi protocols sprouted on the Aptos network, creating a vibrant ecosystem.

• 

• Microsoft and Google Cloud partnerships announced in 2023: Aptos' development continued unabated. Partnerships with major technology companies were among the highlights of the year. In April 2023, a partnership with Google Cloud was announced; Google Cloud started running a validator node to support the Aptos network and provide cloud infrastructure support to developers. In August 2023, a strategic partnership with Microsoft was announced. In this context, Aptos Labs and Microsoft announced that they would work on new solutions that combine blockchain and artificial intelligence. The news of the partnership was also welcomed by the markets: After the Microsoft news, the Aptos coin price rose by about 15% in one day.
• In 2024 and beyond, the price has almost stabilized: The Aptos team continues to work on further increasing the scalability of the network and improving the developer experience. In 2024, Aptos continued to make a name for itself with protocol updates, parallel processing engine improvements (innovations such as Block-STM v2) and grants to ecosystem projects. Aptos Labs also took steps to expand in the Asian and European markets, while the Aptos Foundation continued to provide support to developers and projects. There are many more milestones ahead for this still young layer-1 blockchain. Meanwhile, APT coin is trading at $5.57 as of April 2025, with a market capitalization of around $3.45 billion. It ranks 30th in the CoinMarketCap rankings. Apt coin price has so far seen its highest level of $ 19.90 on January 30, 2023, while its lowest level was recorded on December 29, 2022 with $ 3.09.

Why is Aptos valuable?

So, with so many blockchain projects out there, what makes Aptos different and why has it attracted so much investment? Aptos is valued for several key reasons.

The secure and innovative Move language

Aptos prioritizes security by using the Move language in smart contracts. Move prevents many security vulnerabilities that can arise during transactions, such as double-spending or accidental loss of cryptocurrencies, which is not possible by Move's design. This allows applications developed on Aptos to be more reliable. With Move, developers can be more confident that the code they write will not have unintended consequences.

High TPS with parallel processing engine

Aptos has parallel processing capability in its technical architecture. This means that transactions on the network are not processed in a single queue, but multiple transactions can be processed in parallel at the same time. Thanks to the Block-STM technology developed by the Aptos Labs team, the network can theoretically handle very high transaction volumes. Internal tests have shown that it can handle up to 160,000 transactions per second (TPS). While these numbers are yet to be reached in the real world, it means that Aptos has the potential to be much faster than current popular networks. This parallel transaction blockchain approach allows users to make transactions with low latency and low fees, even when the network is busy. In the table below, you can see how the Aptos network compares to various popular blockchains:

Blockchain	Real TPS (Mainnet)	Maximum TPS (Test Environment)	Theoretical Max TPS	Block Time	Finality Time
Aptos	41 TPS	12,933 TPS	160,000 TPS	0.13 sec	0.9 sec
Solana	65,000 TPS	65,000 TPS	65,000 TPS	0.4 sec	~1 sec
Ethereum	15 TPS	15 TPS	15 TPS	12 sec	60 sec
Avalanche	4,500 TPS	4,500 TPS	4,500 TPS	1–2 sec	~2 sec
Sui	4,000 TPS	120,000 TPS	120,000 TPS	0.5 sec	~1 sec

Developer-friendly and open source infrastructure

The team behind Aptos places great importance on the developer experience. Aptos was developed as an open-source project from the start, meaning that its code is transparently available on GitHub. There are also Aptos developer tools that support different programming languages. For example, there are libraries, SDKs (Software Development Kits) and extensive documentation for those who want to use the Move language. There are even Aptos SDKs for languages as diverse as Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Rust and Java. This makes it easy for developers from different backgrounds to step into the Aptos ecosystem. In addition, the network's design is modular and upgradeable, making it easier to add new features or troubleshoot issues.

Strong investor and community support

The support behind a project is as important to its success as the technology. Aptos has gained a huge vote of confidence at the very beginning of its journey by receiving funding from some of the most reputable investors. As mentioned above, giants of the crypto world such as a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto, Binance Labs have invested in Aptos. This is not only a financial support, but also a source of reputation for the project. In addition to big funding, Aptos also has an active community support. Thanks to the testnet campaigns and airdrops organized before the mainnet, a wide range of users got involved in the project. Today, the Aptos ecosystem is a vibrant and growing world with contributions from both individual investors and developer communities. Finally, it is worth noting that the Aptos network is Proof-of-Stake (PoS) based and users can participate in the network by staking Aptos. So if you have an APT token, you can stake it to validators and contribute to network security and earn rewards. This mechanism both increases the security of the Aptos network and provides passive income for token holders.

Who is the Founder of Aptos?

When it comes to Aptos, it is hard not to wonder about the team behind it. Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching are the founders and leaders of Aptos. We can say that the answer to the question “Who founded Aptos?” is these two names. They are both former employees of Meta (Facebook) and held important positions in Facebook's crypto project called Diem. In 2021, after leaving Meta, they founded Aptos Labs and started developing the Aptos blockchain. In other words, behind Aptos are two experienced names and a strong team.

When they worked at Meta, Mo Shaikh was more involved in strategy and business development (on the Novi wallet project), while Avery Ching was one of the chief software architects of the Diem blockchain. In other words, one knows the business side of the business and the other knows the technology side very well.

In 2021, Shaikh and Ching left Meta and set out to realize their vision by founding Aptos Labs. Aptos Labs, a for-profit company, is the main team responsible for the development of the Aptos blockchain. There is also the Aptos Foundation. There is a division of tasks between Aptos Labs and the Aptos Foundation: Aptos Labs builds the protocol's technical development, infrastructure and products, while Aptos Foundation focuses on maintaining the decentralization of the network, community management, grant programs and ecosystem growth. In a way, the Foundation is the public interest and community face of Aptos, while Labs is the engineering and operations side.

Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching combine the professionalism of Silicon Valley roots with the spirit of the blockchain world. In other words, they blend the corporate approach with the vision of decentralization. During Aptos' development process, they have been very systematic in terms of team building and securing investment. For example, Mo Shaikh led the fundraising process for the project and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in a short time. Avery Ching led the integration of technological innovations such as Move language and Block-STM, focusing on realizing the high performance and security Aptos claims. As a result, under the leadership of these two founders, Aptos continues to move forward both technically and in terms of business strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

You may still have some basic questions about Aptos. Let's try to clear your minds by providing short and clear answers to these frequently asked questions below:

• What is Aptos and what language does it use? Aptos is a next-generation layer-1 blockchain project focused on scalability and speed. It has its own network and native cryptocurrency (APT) and uses the Move programming language for smart contracts. The Move language, originally developed for Facebook's Diem project, enables Aptos to have secure and efficient smart contracts. In short, Aptos is a high-performance blockchain that relies on the Move language to secure its transactions.
• Who founded Aptos?: The founders of the Aptos project are Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching. They are former employees of Meta (Facebook) and held key positions in Facebook's crypto project Diem. In 2021, after leaving Meta, they founded Aptos Labs and started developing the Aptos blockchain. In other words, behind Aptos, there are two experienced names and a strong team built by them.
• When was the Aptos mainnet launched? Aptos' mainnet was officially launched in October 2022. More specifically, October 17, 2022 is the day of the Aptos mainnet launch. This launch was dubbed “Aptos Autumn”. With the mainnet launch, transactions on the Aptos network began and the APT token was listed and traded on exchanges.
• What is the Move language?: Move is a proprietary smart contract programming language used by Aptos (and previously by Facebook Diem), hence why it is sometimes referred to as the Aptos Move language. Move's design focuses on the secure management of cryptocurrencies. For example, in Move, each asset is a “resource” and cannot be copied or destroyed, which prevents issues such as double-spending. Move is also a secure language based on Rust, making it difficult for developers to make error-prone transactions. As a result, Move is a modern programming language that aims to build more secure and error-free applications in the blockchain world.
• Where Aptos is used: Aptos is a general-purpose blockchain platform, so its use cases are quite broad. Many Web3 projects can run on it, such as decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, NFT marketplaces, blockchain games, social media applications. In particular, its high transaction speed and low latency make it a suitable platform for real-time gaming or transaction-intensive finance applications. In addition, new token projects can be developed on the Aptos network, and voting and governance applications can be implemented through smart contracts.
• How much is the APT token supply: The total supply for APT, Aptos' native token, has been announced at 1 billion units. This is the maximum amount that will be reached when all APT tokens are issued. However, not all of this supply is in circulation. Initially, some of the tokens were split between the community, the team, investors and the Foundation. Over time, the circulating supply increases with tokens unlocked at certain periods. For example, in the first phase, the amount in circulation was about 13% (130 million APT), with the remaining tokens entering the market on various schedules. The APT token is used to pay transaction fees, stake and participate in governance on the network.

Follow our Jr Kripto Guide series for up-to-date content on the future, technology and potential of Aptos.