Aptos is an altcoin that is grabbing a lot of attention during the current crypto bull run. Prices are up, Donald Trump is in the White House, crypto will be trending. One of those cryptos could be Aptos, a blockchain we wrote about at DisruptionBanking last July. It has a lot in common with Sui which we wrote about last week. With the market looking bullish how strong will Aptos be in 2025?
Aptos was formed by people who left Meta’s Libra project, just like at Sui. Aptos is a layer 1 blockchain built with a Rust-based programming language called Move. Just like Sui, Aptos is touted to be a Solana killer. But where Sui is quite easy to get your head round, Aptos is a bit more ‘institutionalised’. This is where it’s important to explain that Aptos Labs is not the same as the Aptos Foundation. Aptos Foundation is like the Aptos blockchain’s steadfast teammate. It’s dedicated to cultivating the ecosystem. The foundation is based in the Cayman Islands.
How Important is Aptos Labs?
Aptos Labs was founded by Avery Ching and Mo Shaikh. Avery spent years at Meta, whilst Mo had worked at BlackRock and BCG prior to joining Avery at Meta. Until recently, Mo Sheikh was the CEO of the Palo Alto based company. The firm has over 158,000 followers on X, whilst the foundation has over 632,000 followers. In December last year things changed at Aptos Labs. Avery took over the helm of the software development company.
It isn’t initially clear what led to the change. However the value of APT, the native token to the Aptos ecosystem, has dropped since the news came out.
Avery has seamlessly stepped into the leadership role. He has been available to speak about the futures plans for Aptos Labs. But let’s not get carried away. First, we need to understand what Aptos Labs is and how it helps the Aptos ecosystem. There is a lot to cover.
Aptos Labs has had investors like Three Arrows Capital and FTX Ventures in the past. Today investors include Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Franklin Templeton and PayPal. The relationship with Franklin Templeton is important here. In April last year the financial institution tokenized its FOBXX money market fund on the Avalanche blockchain. It then went live on Aptos with its fund.
Most importantly, Aptos Labs is the entity that is grabbing all the investment and the attention. Be it Microsoft, the Boston Consulting Group, or Bevan Howard, the interest from institutional investors just keeps increasing. The firm has raised over $350 million from investors since late 2021.
The firm has a large developer community as well. Aptos Labs was recognized as being the second largest growing ecosystem for developers in Quarter 3, 2024. This is compared to Quarter 3, 2023 and is related to companies with over 150 developers already.
Institutional Collaborations at Aptos
Aptos Ascend is powered by Microsoft Azure Open AI and implemented with support from the Boston Consulting Group. Aptos Ascend is a suite of end-to-end institutional solutions powered by SKT Telekom, the leading South Korean wireless telco operator. One of the companies benefitting from this is Bevan Howard. The leading global alternative investment management platform is working with Aptos Ascend to offer industry leadership and expertise to develop a seamless path for any major bank or financial institution to begin offering digital currency and asset management to their clients responsibly and at scale.
This type of initiative will be key to the development of the Decentralized Finance ecosystem where Aptos Labs is already an important player. Aptos Ascend has several use cases listed on its’ site:
Unlock Liquidity from Tokenized Assets
Enable access to liquidity for real-world assets by expanding distribution channels through tokenization
Innovate Lending
Pioneer the lending space by enabling loans without traditional collateral, broadening access to finance for new market segments
Merge Legacy and Decentralized Finance
Facilitate institutional access to DeFi opportunities within regulated frameworks
It’s this institutional grade product, coupled with collaboration with big tech companies and a large developer commmunity that has propelled the Aptos brand into the public sphere. It will be the reason that the APT token could grow in price and in desirability.
What are some of the upcoming Milestones for Aptos in 2025?
In a recent interview, Avery Ching shared some of the milestones that are coming up for the layer 1 blockchain. He has also written out the roadmap for Aptos Labs on his X profile.
When Avery met with Crypto India in late December he shared some insights.
Aptos has a large following in India, many of its’ developers are based there. With Aptos being built on Move, many Rust-based developers who might currently be supporting Solana, are finding it attractive to move to the Aptos blockchain.
Avery shared how Move 2 was coming up in 2025. The new version of the much-touted programming language will further develop the current abilities of Move. Additionally, Raptr, dubbed by Aptos Labs’ Head of Research as the “endgame for blockchain consensus” is set to transform blockchain infrastructure. Raptr will be critical for opening the potential for scalability and stability of the DeFi ecosystem over the next 100 years, according to Aptos Labs. It is alleged to be much quicker than anything out there today.
There is much more to share about Aptos as the leadership team continue to tackle the problems of the global payment system.
There is also Petra Pay, a big project at Aptos that will be of interest to investors. Holders of the Petra Wallet can easily offer Aptos for staking. Just one of the nuances of this project. Then there is the Aptos Card… Lots of these projects were explained in detail at the recent Experience Aptos event in September 2024.
What About the Value of the Aptos Token in 2025?
Aptos is not showing the same price activity as Solana or Sui, to whom it is most frequently compared. According to Coinbase the market cap of Aptos is $5.4 billion. However, the leading trading platform, Tradingview, is not bullish on the token.
Trading at $9 per token today there is no doubt that if Aptos Labs ambition to raise the profile of Aptos continues, the price will need to rise. Due to the added interest it would give to the project. As well as because of the way that tokenomics works.
The worry is that Aptos tokens in circulation are part of the problem when it comes to the increase of the price. When the token was first released, over 500 million tokens were put into circulation. There will be up to one billion according to the market cap of Aptos.
An added advantage is that you can stake on Aptos. Returns are 7% currently. However, the price fluctuations we have seen since Aptos was launched are still a concern. The focus on stablecoins at Aptos may cause a rally. Especially as XRP continues to grow in popularity and has a similar challenge to overcome.
Changes in leadership. New products hitting the market. Enhanced support from institutional investors. There is every chance that Aptos could rise in 2025. We would err on the side of caution though. It is unlikely that Aptos will double in price. Albeit the new CEO knows what he is doing. Has some incredible advisors. And is very heavily involved in both South Korea and India. Huge Web3 markets of the future.
Market commentators have added that a price point of almost $20 could be realistic sometime in 2025. If the value of Aptos can stay above $10. Which it hasn’t. Elsewhere commentators have offered a value of $50 (or at least Binance has), pointing at the institutional investors supporting Aptos Labs. What you may want to do is monitor how the AI and Web3 collaboration is going with Microsoft. This could be the thing that really gets the token moving.
Keep an eye on Aptos for the future once more of their plans become clear. While Aptos shows promise, tokens like Sui, HBAR, or Solana currently present a stronger track record for investors seeking near-term stability. Just look at what TradingView has to say about the performance of Sui or Solana compared to Aptos over the last twelve months:
Disclaimer:
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
Author: Andy Samu
See Also:
How Strong Will Bitcoin Be in 2025? | Disruption Banking
How Strong Will Onyx (XCN) Be In 2025? | Disruption Banking
