By Jake Kennis
Compiled by: TechFlow
Disclaimer: Nansen has produced the following report in collaboration with Slice Analytics as part of its existing contract to provide services to Aptos (the “Client”). While Aptos has the right to review and provide feedback to Nansen, Nansen retains full editorial control over the publication of this report. All opinions are the independent opinions of Nansen’s research analysts, the authors listed in this report. This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, professional or other advice. Please refer to the Disclaimer at the end of this report and our Terms of Service for further information.
Overview
Aptos is a high-performance blockchain platform based on the Move programming language that has made significant progress in 2024. Key innovations include a partnership with Tether to bring USDT to the Aptos platform. Aptos has also improved their technology by introducing the Aptos Wallet Standard developed with Nightly Wallet, simplifying wallet integration for developers. Chainlink integrates its data sources and cross-chain interoperability protocols with Aptos, enhancing the network’s data services. In addition, Aptos partners with NBCUniversal to bring Web3 fan experiences and games into mainstream entertainment.
In the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, Aptos expanded its offerings, https://ondo.finance/ integrated real-world assets, while Cellana Finance launched its mainnet, adopting the FungibleAsset Standard, which are assets that are both fungible and have specific properties. In gaming and NFTs, Supervillain Labs launched Supervillain Idle RPG, while Aptos partnered with Cripco to launch WARP3, an intellectual property aggregation platform that connects Web2 and Web3.
On the enterprise side, Aptos Labs launched Aptos Connect, a self-hosted wallet that simplifies the user onboarding process. Shoal++, a DAG BFT system, was released with sub-second latency at 100k TPS throughput, setting a new performance standard for the blockchain industry.
Key developments: 2024 to present
Tether Operations Limited will launch its leading stablecoin USDT on the Aptos network, making it the first stablecoin available on a Move-powered blockchain. The integration expands Tether’s reach in emerging markets and aims to promote global financial inclusion by leveraging the scalability and efficiency of Aptos. Aptos’ low transaction fees, sub-second transaction latency, and 99.99% uptime make it an ideal platform for both microtransactions and large-scale operations.
Chainlink has integrated with Aptos, bringing its data feed and Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to the network. As part of the Chainlink SCALE initiative, this integration provides Aptos with critical tools and industry-leading data, making Aptos the first Move-based network to integrate with Chainlink.
Aptos Labs and NBCUniversal have entered into a long-term partnership to bring innovative Web3 fan experiences, customer loyalty programs, and games to the entertainment giant. The collaboration is expected to revolutionize the way fans interact with all of NBCUniversal’s properties, leveraging Aptos’ blockchain technology to create immersive, next-generation entertainment experiences.
The Aptos Foundation held its first online Aptos RaNd0M Hack, which ultimately attracted 280 applicants. The hackathon showcased the community’s enthusiasm for Aptos Roll, the randomness API on the Aptos chain. The community voted on the top five projects, and Move Mania took first place.
Aptos Labs has launched a new feature called Passkeys that allows users to log into apps with just two taps, similar to Face ID or Touch ID. This innovation simplifies how Web3 is interacted with, making it more secure and user-friendly, especially for non-technical users. Passkeys represents a major step towards mainstream blockchain adoption as it lowers the barrier to entry for new users.
The Aptos Foundation and Movement Labs have achieved a major milestone by successfully integrating Aptos’ data availability capabilities with the Move Stack. This integration connects Aptos to Ethereum and EVM-compatible applications, networks, and frameworks, increasing interoperability and further expanding the reach of the Aptos ecosystem.
Shinami, a leading developer platform, has partnered with the Aptos Foundation to bring its full suite of products to the Aptos Network, providing developers with the necessary tools to build decentralized applications (dApps). Shinami has also launched a gas fee credit program to improve the user experience on Aptos, making it easier and more affordable for developers to build applications on the platform.
Aptos Labs and io.net have partnered to make AI technology more accessible on the Aptos Network by providing distributed, scalable GPU resources and a suite of AI model and inference products.
Aptos Labs announced the launch of Aptos Ascend at the DeFi Days Summit, marking an important step in integrating traditional finance with blockchain technology. The initiative was created in partnership with Microsoft, SK Telecom, Brevan Howard, and BCG to provide institutions with secure and flexible solutions.
Nightly Wallet and Aptos Labs have jointly launched Aptos Wallet Standard, a new feature that allows teams to seamlessly inject wallets into decentralized applications (dApps) without the need to directly integrate the dApp. The standard is expected to revolutionize the way wallets are integrated in the Aptos ecosystem, simplifying the process for developers and improving the overall user experience. Aptos Wallet Standard reflects the ongoing innovation within the Aptos network, aiming to enhance interoperability and ease of use.
Ecosystem
DeFi
Ondo Finance is working with the Aptos Foundation to bring real world assets (RWAs) to the Aptos blockchain, with the first step being the integration of USDY. These collaborations combine traditional finance with blockchain technology to provide more secure and efficient financial products. By integrating RWAs, Aptos expands its decentralized finance (DeFi) offerings, making the platform more attractive to institutional investors.
Cellana Finance launched its mainnet, becoming the first decentralized finance (DeFi) product to adopt the FungibleAsset standard and the Ve(3,3) model on Aptos. The standard allows the creation of fungible tokens with detailed metadata, meaning that these tokens can represent items that are both fungible and have specific properties. Cellana builds on this by allowing users to lock their CELL tokens as veCELL (“ve” = voting escrow) for governance and rewards. Unlike the traditional model where these locked tokens can only stay in one account, Cellana tokenizes them as NFTs, making them transferable. This approach not only enhances liquidity, but also allows users to trade their locked positions, making the system more flexible and efficient.
Pontem has launched Liquidswap V1, the first automated market maker (AMM) on the Aptos Network, achieving feature parity with many top decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Liquidswap V1 supports centralized liquidity pools, enabling more efficient trading and liquidity management.
Kana Labs integrated its Paymaster service with Chingari to enable users on the Aptos network to conduct gas-free transactions. This integration has already processed over 250,000 transactions, significantly improving the user experience by eliminating transaction costs.
Echelon launched on Aptos, committed to ensuring a secure, composable and capital efficient future for Move DeFi. The launch introduces advanced lending capabilities, emphasizing the security provided by the VM Core and the capital efficiency driven by E-Mode, which is critical to the development of DeFi on Aptos.
The Aptos Foundation has put forward a proposal to deploy Aave V3 on the Aptos mainnet, which, if approved, would mark the first time Aave has been deployed on a non-EVM blockchain. Aave Labs has built the integration code and deployed it to the Aptos testnet, laying the foundation for this groundbreaking integration.
Superposition announced the launch of a multi-chain product on Aptos, aiming to achieve interoperability of DeFi. The plan will start with Aptos and expand to other networks such as Solana and Avalanche, enhancing the composability and interconnectivity of DeFi in Aptos and other blockchain ecosystems.
TruFin launched its TruStake product on Aptos, providing an institutional-grade DeFi solution for the network. TruStake allows users to stake APTs, contribute to network security, and earn rewards while seamlessly integrating with platforms such as Liquidswap, Superposition, and Aries Markets.
Econia Labs has launched emojicoin.fun on the testnet, a digital asset launch platform that uses emojis as tickers, bringing a unique fun and interactive experience to users.
NFTs & Gaming
Aptos Labs has partnered with Supervillain Labs to launch Supervillain Idle RPG, a new immersive gaming experience running on the Aptos blockchain. The game was developed by the METAPIXEL team and marks an important expansion of the Aptos gaming ecosystem. The partnership aims to attract gamers and developers to explore and participate in blockchain-based games, and improve the overall gaming experience quality on Aptos.
The Aptos Foundation is working with MON Protocol to strengthen the on-chain gaming ecosystem and provide game developers on Aptos with MON development tools, aiming to accelerate social awareness and adoption. MON Protocol, known for its work on the metaverse project Pixelmon, will support existing and future game developers on Aptos and increase the visibility and success of game projects within the ecosystem.
Aptos Labs and Cripco have partnered to launch WARP3, a platform designed to bridge Web2 and Web3, focused on aggregation, curation, and payment of intellectual property. This collaboration enables Aptos users to easily access, own, and monetize intellectual property, further expanding the utility of the Aptos Network in the creative and intellectual property space.
Aptos Labs and Toymak3r have partnered to revolutionize the world of collectibles by creating immersive fan experiences, starting with deadmau5’s 25th anniversary tour. The collaboration brings together physical and digital collectibles to provide fans with a unique experience that bridges the physical and virtual worlds.
Led by Aptos Monkeys, Wapal, Mercato, and Kana Labs, the “It’s An Aptos Thing” campaign saw 26,000 unique minters participate, resulting in 1 million NFTs minted on Aptos through its aggregator feature. This community-led event showcased the speed and capacity of the Aptos network, reinforcing its ability to support large-scale NFT projects.
Aptos Labs welcomes Google Cloud to Aptos GameStack, a move that enables game developers to integrate Google Cloud’s data, analytics, and AI/ML solutions with a range of Web3 gaming tools from Aptos. This partnership brings significant improvements to Aptos' gaming ecosystem, providing developers with powerful resources to help them improve game development and player experience.
KYD Labs has signed a four-year partnership with Le Poisson Rouge, making the historic New York venue the first major U.S. venue to go fully on-chain, with all performances and ticketing to take place on the Aptos blockchain.
enterprise
The Aptos Foundation has deepened its integration with Stargate and LayerZero to simplify the DeFi experience on Aptos by improving cross-chain interoperability and transaction efficiency. This collaboration solves key obstacles in DeFi and makes it easier for users to seamlessly access the Aptos ecosystem.
Aptos Labs has released a series of performance and latency improvements, making Aptos the first blockchain to achieve end-to-end latency of less than one second for all transaction types. This technical milestone sets a new standard for speed and efficiency in the blockchain industry, making Aptos the fastest blockchain on the market, capable of truly instant transactions.
Aptos Labs has launched Aptos Connect, a next-generation Web3 onboarding tool that provides a keyless, self-custodial wallet for secure access. Aptos Connect simplifies user onboarding with a familiar Web2 login, enabling one-click account creation and eliminating the need for private keys or seed phrases.
The Aptos Labs research team has launched Shoal++, a next-generation Directed Acyclic Graph Byzantine Fault Tolerant (DAG BFT) system designed to achieve sub-one-second latency and 100,000 transactions per second throughput, tested on a comprehensive test network. This development, with 100 nodes deployed in ten regions across six continents, highlights the global scalability and robustness of the Aptos technology. Shoal++ represents a major leap forward in blockchain performance, setting a new standard for speed and efficiency for the blockchain industry.
Elliptic integrates with Aptos to provide advanced cryptocurrency compliance solutions for the entire ecosystem. This integration introduces enhanced security features, including transaction screening and Web3 transparency, which is critical to maintaining trust within the ecosystem. By leveraging Elliptic's tools, Aptos strengthens its position as a secure and compliant blockchain network.
Semgrep has added support for Move to Aptos, providing preliminary security rules to help developers find vulnerabilities and enhance the security of the ecosystem. This integration enables security researchers to conduct audits more efficiently and improves the overall robustness of smart contracts and applications on the Aptos blockchain.
On-chain data
Daily Deals
As of late 2024, the Aptos network experienced significant fluctuations in daily transaction volume, reaching a peak of 326 million transactions per day on May 25, 2024. This surge is mainly attributed to the popularity of tap-to-earn game Tapos Cat, as well as other gaming projects on the platform. This unprecedented level of trading activity was achieved without any technical glitches, highlighting the robust infrastructure of the Aptos network.
Excluding the significant surge in May, the Aptos network showed steady growth in transaction volume between January and June, maintaining an average of 1.5 million transactions per day. The surge in late February and mid-March was due to internal load testing.
Daily active addresses
The changing trend of active addresses is closely related to transaction volume. Active addresses show a gradually increasing trend, with daily active addresses fluctuating significantly between 200,000 and 300,000. The most notable event was the surge to 500,000 daily active addresses in early June. This growth is attributed to the popularity of tap-to-earn game Tapos Cat. Overall, the data shows a steady upward trend in user activity, with this brief surge in June adding to that trend.
Summarize
2024 is a period of rapid growth for Aptos, thanks to key technological innovations and strategic partnerships. Aptos launched the Aptos Wallet Standard, simplifying wallet integration, and partnered with Chainlink to enhance data services and cross-chain interoperability. Partnerships with NBCUniversal and Supervillain Labs expanded Aptos' influence in the entertainment and gaming sectors, while the launch of Cellana Finance and the integration of real-world assets enhanced its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
On-chain activity reflects this growth, with Aptos processing as many as 117 million transactions in a single day, largely due to popular gaming projects like Tapos Cat. Daily transactions averaged 1.5 million, with a significant surge in user engagement, particularly in February and March. Active addresses also showed steady growth, peaking at over 500,000 in early June, indicating an expanding user base and increased network activity.
