Aptos: Home of High-Performance DeFi
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Aptos: Home of High-Performance DeFi
Aptos is one of the best choices for DeFi projects.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOn October 18, 2022, the Aptos mainnet launched, marking the emergence of another significant blockchain in Web3. Today, the Aptos mainnet has been running for one year. Aptos is a continuously evolving and growing blockchain, with engineers consistently optimizing performance, reducing costs, and enhancing decentralization and security. Since Bixin Ventures invested in Aptos in 2022, its achievements to date give us good reason to believe that Aptos is one of the best choices for DeFi projects.
Key Points
1. DeFi demonstrates a more open and efficient model, representing the future of finance
DeFi disrupts and replaces traditional finance by improving financial efficiency and democratizing assets, presenting immense opportunities for future development.
2. Aptos uses the Move language, targeting 160,000 TPS and finality under 1 second, with low fees ideal for DeFi deployment
Using the developer-friendly Move language, through innovations like parallel execution and Diem-BFT consensus, Aptos aims to achieve 160,000 TPS and finality under 1 second according to its roadmap, with transaction fees below $0.01 per transaction. Aptos is currently the blockchain with the lowest latency and highest throughput on the market (according to Messari).
3. 850,000 followers, over 200 projects developing on Aptos—robust infrastructure supporting DeFi growth
Aptos has amassed a community of 850,000 followers, and foundational tools such as wallets, explorers, security audits, bridges, and domains enable developers to build and deploy DeFi applications more easily.
4. Multiple high-value grant programs supporting DeFi and other project types
The Foundation Grant Program, along with the recently launched Registry Program, is now active, offering many opportunities for developers on Aptos. Additionally, several DeFi incentive programs exist, including the accelerator program initiated by Aptos and Google Cloud, and the DeFi incentive program Thala Foundry co-launched by Aptos and Thala.
5. Numerous well-known DeFi projects already deployed
For users, numerous DeFi projects are already live, such as Pancake, Thala, Amnis Finance, Merkle Trade, and others. Furthermore, projects like Sushi and Econia will launch their mainnets in Q4.
1. Limitless Potential of DeFi
We all know Web3 will change how the world uses the internet. But within this space, decentralized finance (DeFi) is particularly revolutionary, poised to disrupt the opaque, centralized traditional financial systems built over decades.
1.1 CEX failures have driven users toward DeFi
On centralized exchanges (CEXs), users must deposit funds into the platform, effectively transferring ownership of their assets to the exchange. Legally, this means users lend their assets to the platform and become creditors. Due to their centralized nature, people have become increasingly aware of the inherent risks associated with CEXs.
Why are users turning to DeFi? First, asset security. DeFi allows users to retain control of their assets via private keys, meaning no one else can access or misuse their funds, greatly enhancing security. Second, users gain greater privacy since they don’t need to provide personal information—their wallets remain detached from real-world identities. Third, users can experience and use a wide range of DeFi applications such as DEXs, stablecoins, perpetuals, lending platforms, on-chain payments, yield aggregators, and liquidity staking.
1.2 As of 2021, 23.8% of adults globally still lacked bank accounts
According to World Bank data from 2021, only 76.2% of the global population aged 15 and above had access to a bank or mobile money account, meaning 23.8% of adults still lack access to financial services. Additionally, the 2023 World Bank Annual Report indicates that approximately 574 million people are expected to remain in extreme poverty by 2030. While poverty has many causes, lack of access to financial services is a key contributing factor.
Percentage of global population with bank accounts in 2021 Source:World Bank Database
Given these factors, we believe DeFi’s development is not short-term but rather part of a long-term upward trend. In fact, as of October 24, 2023, DEXs recorded $5 billion in 24-hour trading volume—an increase of 42% compared to the average daily volume of $3.5 billion in 2022—and monthly average trading volume has surpassed $10 billion.
Monthly average DEX trading volume Source:Defillama & A16Z
Stablecoins, serving as foundational currencies in DeFi, are also experiencing rapid growth. To date, their total issuance exceeds $120 billion, demonstrating strong demand for decentralized, stable-value dollar-denominated assets.
On-chain stablecoin supply Source:The Block, Coin Metrics, DeFillama
Supporting such promising DeFi innovation requires a secure, high-performance, low-cost public blockchain capable of fostering reliable and innovative DeFi applications. We believe that among the next wave of DeFi innovation, Aptos stands out as one of the most promising blockchains.
2. Aptos Is Ready for the Next Wave of DeFi Growth, With Upgradable Features Ensuring Continuous Iteration
In its early stages, the Aptos tech stack was designed by Meta's top 30 blockchain engineers. Over the following three years, 292 developers and dozens of communities contributed to protocol development and proposal improvements. Compared to other blockchains, Aptos holds clear advantages in security, scalability, cost, decentralization, and infrastructure—making it especially suitable for high-value, user-intensive DeFi applications.
It's worth noting that since mainnet launch, the Aptos team has implemented monthly smart contract upgrades, working closely with developers to understand needs and proactively address them. Thus, improvements in performance, cost, decentralization, and ecosystem will continue iteratively. Significant changes to Aptos can be expected in the coming months or years. You can see the extensive updates already made via the Aptos Improvement Proposals (AIP).
2.1 The Move Language & Diem-BFT Consensus Ensure DeFi Security
Unlike other blockchains, Aptos takes a unique approach by adopting the Move language to ensure blockchain security. Move is a language specifically designed for digital assets, defining them through Resources. It abstracts four key properties of resources—copyability, indexability, discardability, and storability—enabling users to easily define any type of digital asset through different combinations. Additionally, Move offers verifiability, flexibility, and composability of contracts.
Move’s security lies in its code verifier and VM-level protections, preventing unauthorized modifications or attacks. No blockchain-specific elements were embedded into the core language during design. Moreover, the Move Prover helps prevent errors during smart contract development. Overall, Move is purpose-built for smart contract development, combining simplicity and security to transform DApp development.
Additionally, the team developed a high-performance, low-latency BFT engine, which has undergone four iterations. As long as BFT validators remain honest, the Aptos chain cannot fork—even if the network becomes unreachable or non-core components are compromised. The security of the consensus protocol has been audited and formally verified.
Since its mainnet launch, Aptos has produced over 100 million blocks. In July this year, weekly user transactions on Aptos reached 4.9 million and continue to rise.
Over 100 million blocks produced since Aptos mainnet launch Source:Aptos Explorer
We believe that as the value foundation of the Web3 world, DeFi must rely on a sufficiently secure underlying public blockchain—and Aptos is one of the best choices for DeFi development teams.
2.2 160,000 TPS, Finality Under 1 Second, Transaction Fees Below $0.01—Supporting Massive User Adoption for DeFi
Currently, most blockchains achieve only double-digit TPS in practice. However, for DeFi applications aiming to onboard millions or tens of millions of users and handle hundreds of billions in daily trading volume, the underlying blockchain must offer extremely high throughput and ultra-low latency. If the base layer lacks sufficient throughput, DeFi development will be severely constrained.
Aptos achieves 160,000 TPS by decoupling consensus from execution and leveraging innovations such as parallel execution and Diem-BFT consensus. This performance leads among mainstream blockchains and significantly surpasses Ethereum L2 solutions. 160,000 TPS provides ample room for DeFi applications to grow.
Aptos offers exceptionally high throughput compared to other L1/L2 chains Source: Official websites or Explorers
Block time is another key factor for DeFi developers when choosing a blockchain. Aptos currently achieves finality in under one second and continues to improve further. According to Messari, Aptos is today’s blockchain with the lowest latency and highest throughput.
Aptos achieves sub-one-second finality Source:Aptos Explorer
Finality times across major L1/L2 chains Source: Respective chain explorers
Compared to centralized finance, high transaction fees often hinder DeFi adoption. Thanks to ongoing efforts by the Aptos team—including separating execution and storage fees and enabling storage fee refunds—transaction costs are now below $0.01 per transaction, dramatically lowering barriers for DeFi users.
Transaction fees below $0.01 Source:Aptos Explorer
2.3 113 Validators Across 25 Countries and 50 Cities Enable Sufficient Decentralization for DeFi
Decentralization is a core tenet of Web3, and Aptos has made substantial efforts to attract more validators into its ecosystem. Encouragingly, as of October 25, 2023, Aptos hosts 113 validator nodes spread across 50 cities in 25 countries, with over $5 billion worth of APT—886,683,319 tokens—staked in the network. This broad distribution ensures both decentralization and security.
Going forward, Aptos will continue attracting new nodes to further enhance network decentralization and security.
Global distribution of validators Source:Aptos Explorer
2.4 850,000 Followers, 200+ Projects Building on Aptos—Robust Infrastructure Accelerating DeFi Development
DeFi application growth depends heavily on the strength of the underlying blockchain ecosystem. Aptos boasts large communities both among users and developers. Currently, social media platforms like Twitter, Discord, Medium, and Telegram collectively have 850,000 followers and growing. Over 200 monthly active developers contribute to the ecosystem, including collaborations with industry leaders such as Microsoft, Google, Mastercard, and Franklin Templeton.
Although monthly active developers declined somewhat due to broader market pessimism since the beginning of the year, this number still represents a significant increase compared to early 2022. We believe that as Aptos continues its monthly upgrades and optimizations, more developers will join the ecosystem.
Monthly active developers on Aptos Source:Developerreport
In terms of infrastructure, Aptos already supports a variety of projects including wallets, explorers, developer tools, security audits, bridges, and domain names. DeFi developers can directly collaborate with existing ecosystem projects, significantly reducing partnership acquisition costs.
During Token2049, Aptos announced a partnership with Google Cloud, including running validators on Google Cloud, co-hosting accelerators and hackathons, and jointly supporting the developer ecosystem on Aptos.
Additionally, Aptos partnered with Microsoft to explore digital payments and asset tokenization, and will leverage Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. Following integration with Azure OpenAI, Aptos will launch the Aptos Assistant—a secure, user-friendly digital assistant capable of answering questions about Aptos.
3. Multiple High-Value Grant Programs Supporting DeFi and Other Project Types
To incentivize more projects to join the Aptos ecosystem, the Aptos Foundation launched infrastructure and application grants to support Developer Toolings, SDKs, Libraries, Documentation, Guides, DeFi, NFTs, Gaming, and other applications. Applications can be submitted via the grant application link, with funding ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. The Registry already lists seven projects planning to deploy on Aptos.
For artists, Aptos launched the Artist Grant Program to support the next generation of Web3 creators.
Moreover, Aptos and Google Cloud established an accelerator program to support web3 entrepreneurs and developers, with top projects receiving APT token rewards and Google Cloud credits.
Recently, in September, Aptos and Thala announced a $1 million fund to incentivize native DeFi development on Aptos. As supported native DeFi projects launch and grow, the fund may expand to $5 million. Each project can receive up to $250,000 in rewards. Five outstanding projects will additionally receive go-to-market guidance, technical support, and investor introductions. Apply now at Thala Foundry.
4. Major Known DeFi Projects Already Deployed on Aptos
Currently, the Aptos website features 23 DeFi applications, including Pancake, Thala, Merkle Trade, Amnis Finance, Sushi, Econia, and others. Below are some featured projects.
DeFi projects on Aptos Source:Aptos Ecosystem
Sushi is a well-known DeFi project, and its first Non-EVM version, Sushi V2, will deploy on Aptos in the coming weeks. Prior to partnering with Aptos, Sushi operated on EVM chains such as Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain. This collaboration marks a milestone in bridging EVM-based DeFi applications with Move-based blockchains, advancing Sushi’s cross-chain and multi-chain strategy.
Econia implements an atomic matching engine that leverages Aptos’ sub-second finality to settle trades instantly upon submission. From spot trading to leveraged perpetual futures, Econia aggregates liquidity to maximize capital efficiency. Econia is secure, decentralized, permissionless, fully on-chain, and perpetually open-source—serving as a foundational layer for next-gen DeFi and an ideal settlement engine for any digital asset.
To support DeFi projects, Aptos Labs participated in Econia’s seed round ($6.5 million). Econia will launch in November, featuring four different frontends (Kana, Pontem, Aries, SwapGPT).
Merkle Trade is a decentralized trading platform using a pooled model for crypto assets, forex, and commodities, offering up to 1000x leverage. Its goal is to become the largest decentralized leveraged trading platform, delivering enjoyable trading experiences for every user.
Compared to other AMMs, Merkle Trade’s first distinctive feature is gamified trading—users earn experience points, climb leaderboards, and unlock rewards. Another highlight is offering forex and commodity pairs, with forex trading fees as low as 0.0075%, allowing users to trade three asset classes on one platform.
Merkle Trade’s mainnet is already live—visit now and claim your rewards.
Merkle Trade trading interface Source:Merkle Trade Official Website
Thala is a native DeFi protocol on Aptos, now live on mainnet. Thala offers two products: a stablecoin (Move Dollar) and an AMM (Thala Swap). Move Dollar (MOD) is over-collateralized by a basket of on-chain assets, including LSD derivatives, LP Tokens, Deposit Receipt Tokens, and RWAs.
Thala Swap is an AMM with dynamic LP adjustments, supporting Weighted Pools, stablecoin pools, and LP bootstrapping pools. Thala Swap expands the utility of MOD stablecoins. Additionally, its integrated LaunchPad enables individuals to participate in early-stage projects.
Last October, Thala announced a $6 million raise. This September, Thala and Aptos jointly launched a $1 million DeFi incubation program, inviting DeFi teams to apply.
Amnis Finance is a Liquid Staking project similar to FRAX, offering up to 7% staking yields. Amnis Finance’s model resembles Pendle’s: yield-bearing assets (stAPT) are packaged into SY (standardized yield tokens), which are then split into principal (PT) and yield (YT) components, tokenizing yield as a separate asset.
Amnis Finance’s mainnet is now live.
Amnis Finance staking page Source:Amnis Finance Official Website
Join the Aptos ecosystem and build groundbreaking Web3 applications! Follow Aptos on Twitter and Medium, and check out job openings on Greenhouse. Bixin Ventures will continue supporting Aptos' ecosystem expansion across the Asia-Pacific region.
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