Aptos Labs sees its network creating a “flywheel effect” for the rest of 2024

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Aptos was busy building a strong foundation in Q2, now it’s utilizing its “good distribution and exposure”

Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain, had a number of major developments during the second quarter, making the network one for others to compete with.

For starters, in late May, its peak total daily transactions surpassing 154 million. (This was the highest transaction metric across any blockchain.)

The transactions came from the launch of Tapos, a “tickle-to-earn” game that gained popularity quickly. Users earned $HEART tokens by interacting with the virtual cat and “tickling” it, resulting in transactions. More significantly, the network had no degradation in terms of performance when it hit a peak, proving that it could run even when transactions spike.

The chain also saw its weekly active contracts near early highs from around its mainnet launch as well as the number of active, and new, addresses hit peaks in March  at 4.65 million, according to data from The Block.

The demand for new addresses has “been growing significantly,” Mo Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, said on the Token Relations x Aptos Quarterly Ecosystem Webinar (now airing on Talking Tokens.) 

“The underpinning category here ends up being a financial system that’s now more open, more accessible and that ecosystem is thriving on Aptos.”

Ondo Finance, Merkle Trade and Thala Labs are three use cases where Aptos is seeing a significant amount of user growth, Shaikh noted. “All these things are running concurrently without any disruption, without transactions failing and without gas fees changing.”

“Not only do you need a high performance network that surpasses protocols like Solana, but also provides us that reliability,” Shaikh added.

The network also integrated with NBCUniversal at the end of June and Chainlink in late May. In April, it partnered with Microsoft, Brevan Howard, SK Telecom and consulting partner BCG to expand Aptos Ascend, an end-to-end FSI suite powered by Microsoft OpenAI Azure and Aptos blockchain tech.

Looking forward, Shaikh expects the rest of 2024 to be an extension of the foundation that’s been cemented in the first half of the year.

“A lot of the work we’re still doing today will be extended into the rest of this year,” Shaikh said. “If you have large players like NBC Universal sitting side by side with Aptos Ascend, you have really good distribution and exposure now.”

If you tie that together, web3 businesses coming online that can work with these large players on Aptos, “we think that creates an unfair advantage in the market,” Shaikh added.

“The last time we saw this type of disruption take place was probably when social networks were about to take off.”

Today, Shaikh sees massive potential in combining large web2 players with web3 entrepreneurs that will create a “very interesting flywheel effect, I’m excited about that for the rest of this year and you’ll see a lot of announcements coming up in the coming months.”

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Tuesday episode, we’re airing the Aptos Quarterly Ecosystem Webinar with Mo Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs.

We discuss Aptos second quarter developments, its growth, ecosystem scaling and partnerships. We also dive into Mo’s outlook for Aptos for the rest of 2024.

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• Speaking of Aptos… the Aptos Foundation has introduced a proposal to deploy Aave V3 on Aptos Mainnet, which would make it Aave’s first non-EVM blockchain expansion

• ICYMI: 21Shares filed for Solana spot ETF following VanEck’s application last week

  • Solana ETFs Seen as a ‘Long Shot’ That Might Still Attract Billions (Bloomberg)

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap increased about 0.5% in the past 24-hours to $2.32 trillion. It is up 2.65% over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken prior to publication on Tuesday morning EST.

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. Bitcoin miner CleanSpark to buy GRIID in $155m all-stock deal (DL News)

2. Mamori raises $5 million in Blockchain Capital-led seed funding (The Block)

3. Collapsed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is about to unload $9 billion of coins onto the market. Here's what it means (CNBC)

4. Igloo, Pudgy Penguins’ parent company, acquired Frame to contribute to the consumer-focused blockchain Abstract

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. Circle becomes first stablecoin issuer to become compliant under new EU laws (Blockworks)

2. Sony Group is planning to launch a crypto exchange after acquiring Amber Japan

3. U.S. Marshals Service chooses Coinbase to safeguard, trade its large cap digital assets portfolio (Coinbase blog)

4. Core Scientific CEO says revenue from AI will help outpace Bitcoin mining (DL News)

5. Analysts say July could be a strong month for bitcoin and ether based on historical trends (The Block)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.