The Commodities Futures Trading Commission has named Mo Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, to its subcommittee on digital assets.
The Digital Assets Markets Subcommittee lies underneath the Global Markets Advisory Committee. Established in 1998, the GMAC consists of who’s who of financial executives, including higher-ups from Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC.
Industry representatives on the larger committee and the subcommittee advise the CFTC on rulemaking that affects international trade and business, according to the agency.
Others on the 34-person digital assets subcommittee include executives from BlackRock, Polygon Labs, Uniswap Labs, and BNY Mellon. Shaikh had to submit a written application to be considered for the advisory group, he told DL News.
Shaikh’s appointment is a further sign of legitimacy for Aptos, a layer 1 blockchain that launched in October 2022.
The network was developed by former employees of Facebook parent Meta Platforms. Shaikh and co-founder Avery Ching worked on Facebook’s blockchain project, Diem, which was scuttled in February 2022.
“Not only do we represent L1s, but we also represent a lot of the projects in the Web3 space — and [are] happy to be a voice for them along the way.” Shaikh said.
Shaikh’s company supports the development of the Aptos blockchain.
Meta, Aptos, and $350 million
Aptos uses Move, the programming language originally designed for Diem, to support a blockchain network that aims to process transactions more quickly than Ethereum.
Aptos Labs has raised $350 million in funding from blue-chip venture capitalists, including Andreessen Horowitz and Jump Crypto, according to Crunchbase. One of its most recent funding rounds in September 2022 pegged its valuation at more than $4 billion, per Bloomberg.
In his interview with DL News, Shaikh repeatedly touted Aptos’ speed. Creators of Sui, another blockchain whose technology comes from Diem, also touted their network’s ability to process many more transactions per second than blockchains like Ethereum.