Mohammad Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, has resigned to "begin a new chapter," and co-founder and CTO Avery Ching will take over the new CEO role.
Shaikh and Ching co-founded Aptos Labs in 2021, contributing to the successful launch of Aptos mainnet in October 2022. Shaikh helped the company raise $400 million and establish many important strategic partnerships.
"Today, I have decided to leave Aptos Labs to begin a new chapter," Shaikh shared in a post on X on December 19, while expressing confidence in the company's future.
"I leave Aptos Labs with absolute confidence in the team and firmly believe that the talent and drive of the team will realize our shared vision in the near future. Avery will take over as CEO of Aptos Labs to lead the company into the next phase of development."
Aptos Labs also expressed this optimism in a post on the same day, emphasizing that their current focus is "sharper than ever" and that 2025 will see Aptos deliver "major technical breakthroughs" to drive the development of the ecosystem under Ching's leadership.
Mo Shaikh at an Aptos event in July 2024
In a series of posts on X, Ching stated that Aptos will also expand its developer community in countries such as India, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and China.
Aptos Blockchain is a layer 1 PoS blockchain designed to improve scalability, security, and transaction speed compared to competitors like Ethereum, Solana, and Sui. This platform uses the Move programming language, originally created for Meta's canceled Diem project.
Shaikh previously worked at Meta, BlackRock, Boston Consulting Group, and the Ethereum infrastructure company Consensys. He helped Aptos build strategic partnerships with major organizations such as BlackRock, Google, Microsoft, Mastercard, and Franklin Templeton, and raised over $400 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, and many other investors.
In particular, a16z led a $200 million funding round in March 2022.
Shaikh's resignation received much praise, including comments from cryptocurrency research firm Token Relations: "Thank you for all your efforts over the years to build Aptos into what it is today."
Shaikh stated that he will continue to participate as a strategic advisor, while planning to "take the time needed to reflect on the direction of the world," especially in the context of finance and how Aptos can become the "most reputable layer 1."
Aptos' APT token was not significantly affected by this information, but it fell by 4% in the past 24 hours amid a general market downturn.
APT maintains a market capitalization of $6.5 billion, making it the 29th largest cryptocurrency in the market. APT has increased by 47% over the past year, according to Coingecko data.
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