Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain that runs smart contracts written in the Move programming language and processes transactions in parallel. Its native token, APT, pays transaction fees, is staked to secure the network, and is used in governance votes on the Aptos protocol.
Core technology and architecture
Validators order transactions through a consensus protocol, then execute them in the Move Virtual Machine, which produces a state change from each ordered block. Block-STM, the parallel execution engine, treats the consensus order as its baseline, runs transactions concurrently, and re-executes only those that conflict. The Block-STM paper reports up to 170k TPS in Aptos benchmarks. These are research results, not live network throughput.
Move treats digital assets as resources that cannot be copied or destroyed by accident. The Move Prover, a formal verifier, checks contract invariants before deployment.
Consensus and security
AptosBFT is a Byzantine fault tolerant protocol derived from Jolteon. It tolerates up to f faulty validators among 3f+1 validators, and a quorum certificate requires 2f+1 votes. The protocol is safe at all times and live under partial synchrony. Baby Raptr, the first production component of the Raptr upgrade, went live on mainnet in June 2025.
Validators stake APT, which backs their participation in consensus. The research did not find the current validator count, minimum stake or slashing rules.
Use cases and ecosystem integrations
Aptos supports decentralized exchanges, lending and stablecoin infrastructure. Stablecoins include USDC, supported through Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, and USDT, supported natively. Nansen reports more than $1.4B in stablecoin liquidity on the network.
Tokenized finance is the most distinctive use case. BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) launched on Aptos, which the Aptos Foundation describes as the only non-EVM chain for that integration. Franklin Templeton's OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, with over $400 million in managed assets, is also live. Archax, a digital securities exchange regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, integrated in March 2026 to bring more than 100 regulated assets onchain. Decibel, a fully onchain perpetuals exchange, went live on mainnet in late February 2026 after $50 million in pre-deposits.
Who is behind Aptos and where is it based?
Aptos Labs was founded by former Meta employees Avery Ching and Mo Shaikh, who worked on the Diem blockchain effort. The team is publicly identified. Ching was co-founder and chief technology officer before becoming chief executive on 19 December 2024, when Shaikh stepped down and remained as a strategic adviser.
The company operates as Matonee Inc., doing business as Aptos Labs. GLEIF records the entity as created on 3 December 2021 and incorporated in Delaware. Aptos Labs is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Mainnet launched in October 2022 with 102 validator nodes across 22 countries.
Matonee raised $200 million in March 2022 in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Multicoin Capital and others participating. A further $150 million followed in July 2022, led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto. Sources give different cumulative totals, from $350 million to nearly $500 million, and the research does not reconcile them.
The Aptos Foundation is a separate entity. Its published terms of use are governed by Cayman Islands law, with an address in George Town, Grand Cayman. Sources differ on its founding year, and they do not confirm which entity holds the APT treasury.
Tokenomics and supply
Total supply is 1,210,920,540 APT, and circulating supply is 883,794,570 APT. Governance proposal AIP-140 set a maximum supply of 2.1 billion APT. At capture on 1 November 2026, APT traded at $0.6341, with a market cap of $560.31M (rank #135), 24h volume of $24.66M and a 24h change of -1.46%. The all-time high is $19.92, and the current price is 96.82% below it.
The original 1 billion APT allocation was 51.02% community, 19.00% core contributors, 16.50% foundation and 13.48% investors. Investors and core contributors received no tokens for their first 12 months, then monthly releases through month 48. Their genesis unlock concluded on 12 October 2026. Only the community and foundation pools still unlock, each releasing 1/120 of its remaining balance monthly through 2032. The Aptos Foundation has also said it will permanently lock 210 million APT in staking, never to be sold or distributed.
On inflation, the original staking schedule starting at 7% is superseded. Governance proposal 184, marked executed on 16 March 2026, cut the staking reward rate from 5.19% to 2.6%. AIP-140 raised gas fees tenfold and burns all fees. By mid-September 2026, about 1.9 million APT had been burned. Blockworks reports that net supply growth fell from about 5% to about 1.5% per year.
Competitive advantages
Block-STM infers transaction dependencies at runtime, so developers do not have to declare every piece of data a transaction touches. Move's resource model and the Move Prover address asset-handling and contract-invariant risks at the language level. Aptos is also one of the few chains hosting several institutional tokenized funds.
Aptos reports nearly 500 active monthly developers, 9.7k open-source repositories and more than 200 projects in production. It reports app revenue up 1,552% to $33.5M. These are company-reported figures.
Development activity and roadmap
Raptr is the main consensus upgrade in progress. Baby Raptr has been live since June 2025, and the phased rollout aims to reduce latency and improve resilience. AIP-140 was approved in 2026. Decibel plans spot markets, multi-collateral accounts and tokenized real-world assets. Everstake's 2026 summary also lists a Confidential APT rollout and Move language updates in Q2 2026, which the research did not verify against primary sources.