Exclusive Interview with Aptos Founding Engineer Sherry: Aiming for a Global Transaction Engine, Reimagining Developer and Retail Communities
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Exclusive Interview with Aptos Founding Engineer Sherry: Aiming for a Global Transaction Engine, Reimagining Developer and Retail Communities
Can retail investors expect to see a fresh new landscape in the Aptos ecosystem?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsInterviewee: Sherry Xiao, Founding Engineer at Aptos Labs
Interview and Article: Alex Liu, Foresight News
Following the重组 of Aptos's leadership team, the project has unveiled its latest positioning as a "Global Trading Engine." We spoke with Sherry Xiao, founding engineer at Aptos Labs, to explore the technological innovations and strategic shifts behind this vision, as well as address community concerns about potential wealth effects.
In the exclusive interview, Sherry detailed the ecosystem development strategy, emphasizing the importance of infrastructure optimization, developer support, and ecosystem incentives. She acknowledged past shortcomings in marketing and retail adoption, and outlined plans to attract more participants through technical innovation and community building. Going forward, Aptos will focus on practical applications that leverage blockchain technology to transform lifestyles, while overcoming network effect limitations through strategic partnerships.
Vision and Implementation Strategy
Foresight News: Could you briefly introduce Aptos' vision and upcoming development direction? How does Aptos plan to achieve this vision?
Sherry Xiao: Aptos is building a "Global Trading Engine."
We're approaching this from several angles. First, on infrastructure, we've already achieved high throughput and low latency, along with extremely low gas fees. Even compared to L2s, our advantages in scalability and low latency are unmatched. Many believe L2s solve scalability, but they're not operating on the same level as Aptos.
Second, we plan to optimize transactions at the Framework layer, tailoring them for specific use cases. For example, we'll develop an on-chain order book at the Framework level to support liquidity growth, advance account abstraction to improve product design and user experience for developers, and implement cross-chain accounts to attract cross-chain liquidity—enabling users holding EVM or Solana addresses to trade directly on Aptos DEXs. We’re also partnering with Aave and Chainlink to bring external liquidity onto Aptos.
Finally, foundation grants will support existing ecosystem projects and incentivize new ones—such as Hyperion and Merkle Trade (a Perp DEX). We’ve made strategic investments across various directions, and significant results will emerge in the coming months.
Foresight News: Aptos seems more focused on serving institutions or professional traders. While UX is strong, adoption among average users and retail investors appears limited. In contrast, Sui has seen broader retail adoption. Is your marketing strategy more institutionally oriented?
Sherry Xiao: Our team comes from a high-performance infrastructure background—core members from Facebook and WhatsApp who served billions of users—so we maintain very high standards for product and technical quality. However, due to our engineering roots, we’ve been relatively weak in marketing and user education. Institutions choose to work with us because they recognize Aptos’ performance advantages and stability during technical evaluations. We also have extensive experience in compliance and regulation, making Aptos a preferred choice for many institutional players.
We’re not intentionally favoring institutions; rather, they naturally gravitate toward us after identifying that Aptos meets their needs in performance and alignment. This year, we’ll place deeper focus on developers and retail users, improving protocols and products to enhance user experience and help more people recognize Aptos’ strengths. We’ve already made many subtle UX improvements—for instance, enhancements to Aptos Keyless. Our goal is consistent, high-quality experiences across all scenarios, not chasing hype. We care about building practical, promising products.
Foresight News: Some say Aptos is copying Sui—switching from a chain structure to a DAG, now developing OrderBook. What’s your take?
Sherry Xiao: Our goal isn’t to replicate any single product, but to continuously improve the performance and scale of on-chain trading. We aim to perfect the infrastructure and leave application-layer innovation to developers, rather than building one product and stepping back. Aptos’ technical architecture differs from Sui’s, so implementation varies. We focus on solving the hardest technical challenges, empowering developers to freely build high-performance, high-experience applications.
On the technical side, even Sui isn’t entirely original—it builds upon existing concepts. Meanwhile, Aptos’ technologies like Block-STM have already been widely adopted by projects such as Monad, Initia, and Polygon. Our consensus protocol and research papers were published early, placing us at the forefront of blockchain design.
Sui launched quickly, but Aptos’ technical groundwork was laid earlier and more deeply. Ultimately, I believe industry trends may converge toward adopting Aptos’ technology.
Key Drivers Behind TVL Growth
Foresight News: Regarding TVL (Total Value Locked) growth, what do you see as the core drivers behind Aptos’ rapid rise?
Sherry Xiao: Aptos has maintained a long-term focus on the trading space. Recently, our CEO Avery’s vision and roadmap have become clearer. All three major stablecoins are now deployed on-chain, and many large institutions have minted assets on Aptos, driving rapid growth in total value. Much of the past growth came from these sources. Additionally, we’re advancing spot trading on DEXs, launching the LFM program, and deploying a $200 million community ecosystem incentive and grant program from the foundation—all significantly boosting DeFi and overall ecosystem development. For example, we invested in the LST protocol Amnis and supported them through their first TGE. Combined with stablecoins, RWA (real-world assets), and key deployments across sectors, these elements collectively fuel multi-dimensional growth.
Foresight News: Is the $200 million incentive a future goal or already underway? Is it similar to DeFi-style incentives?
Sherry Xiao: It’s already underway. This isn’t just a simple incentive mechanism—our goal is to incubate high-quality projects and DeFi protocols. The funding includes three components: grants, investments, and incentives.
We don’t want the foundation to merely spend funds on short-term incentives, which would eventually run out. In reality, this $200 million represents a long-term development plan aimed at encouraging ecosystem builders and cultivating leading protocols.
Developer Quality and Ecosystem Development
Foresight News: Aptos has strong infrastructure, but ecosystem builders seem to lag behind. How do you view this issue?
Sherry Xiao: We aim to solve the hardest technical problems while delivering the best possible developer experience and lowering entry barriers. We invest heavily in developer cultivation and community building, collaborating with top universities like Stanford and Berkeley to attract high-caliber developers.
The order book is a great example—we see many projects wanting to tackle this, but it's technically challenging and time-consuming, and individual solutions may not meet expectations. We plan to lead this effort officially, collaborating with projects like Econia and Kana Labs to prevent resource fragmentation. There will be an official liquidity order book to aggregate liquidity, while teams differentiate themselves at the product layer—through unique user experiences and features. This approach solves technical hurdles efficiently while enabling optimal solutions.
Foresight News: Users aren't direct customers of the chain—they go where developers build. Are developers choosing Aptos for Move language security? Is developer growth on track?
Sherry Xiao: Currently, Web3 developers are far fewer than Web2. We need to attract more high-quality talent. Move’s safety is a key draw—years of smart contract vulnerabilities causing massive losses highlight the need for more reliable solutions, which Move provides. We’re also enhancing toolchains and offering incentives to lower barriers and support developer growth.
Over the past two years, Move developers have grown by 37%—a solid achievement. While numbers aren’t yet ideal, we believe compelling technical narratives and practical products will attract more external developers.
Impact Across User Segments
Foresight News: How does Aptos’ new roadmap impact different user groups—enterprises, developers, and community members?
Sherry Xiao: For enterprise users, infrastructure won’t change dramatically—performance and stability will continue improving. For community members and developers, our vision and $200 million support will bring more flagship projects and incentives, attracting greater participation in ecosystem building. Regular users will see more engaging, interactive projects, while developers gain access to more resources and support.
Community Feedback and LFM Program Effectiveness
Foresight News: Community reactions to Aptos’ first LFM project (Amnis) were mixed, with considerable criticism. How would you assess the LFM program’s effectiveness?
Sherry Xiao: Every community has diverse voices. Initially, Amnis’ TGE did receive negative feedback—particularly around fairness in airdrop distribution—issues the project team needed to balance. But soon after, Amnis’ token performed exceptionally well, ranking among top exchanges, and community sentiment shifted positively.
The LFM program is inherently a long-term ecosystem initiative, not just a short-term market play. We’ll continue close communication with the community through various channels, incorporating feedback to improve future projects. Amnis was just the beginning—I’m confident the next project will be even better.
Foresight News: Will you guide projects to benefit retail users more?
Sherry Xiao: We’ll experiment with different approaches to ensure fairness. This is a trial-and-error process—e.g., using tools to identify long-term active users and rewarding them more, preventing excessive concentration among whales.
Foresight News: There are many lending protocols in the ecosystem, but innovation is lacking. How can you avoid centralization and homogenization?
Sherry Xiao: We want to encourage collaboration between projects so capital flows efficiently, rather than operating in silos. The foundation will support innovative projects and foster communication and cooperation to prevent duplication.
We encourage developers to build unique, standout applications. The LFM program has a “racing” element—eventually, the strongest apps will emerge.
Future Outlook and Aptos’ Role
Foresight News: How do you see the future of blockchain development, and what role will Aptos play?
Sherry Xiao: Aptos is a pioneer in blockchain technology. We aim to drive innovation and solve real-world problems—especially in social and e-commerce applications. Blockchain should transform how people live—replacing traditional methods with efficient payments and settlements. We believe Aptos’ technology and use cases have limitless potential.
Technical superiority is foundational, but we also need the right distribution channels and partners to drive adoption. Marketing is just as important as technology.
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