APT is the native token of the Aptos blockchain ecosystem. It is notably known for originating from Meta’s (formerly Facebook’s) failed Diem project, a stablecoin initiative. Aptos was launched in 2022 by former Meta engineers Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching.
With the project’s best idea, the engineers founded Aptos Labs in October 2022 with a simple vision – To build a blockchain that is faster, cheaper, and safer than existing alternatives, capable of serving millions of users, not just crypto enthusiasts.
While most blockchains process transactions one by one, Aptos processes thousands of transactions in parallel using a technology called Block-STM. As a result, it has achieved a throughput of over 160,000 transactions per second (TPS), while its real-world performance has been recorded at more than 19,000 TPS.
The Aptos blockchain ecosystem uses a programming language called Move, which was originally developed for the Diem project and designed from the ground up with security as a top priority. As a result, it helps prevent smart contract vulnerabilities that could otherwise lead to billions of dollars in losses compared to other blockchains.
Because of Aptos’s advanced blockchain technology, Aave, one of the leading DeFi lending protocols, made its first-ever non-EVM deployment on Aptos on 21 August 2025. In addition, the WLFI stablecoin, USD1, a crypto project backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, was launched on Aptos on 6 October 2025.
A key milestone achieved by the Aptos blockchain ecosystem is its growth in monthly active users, which have surpassed 16.7 million, up from 2.5 million in 2025. Meanwhile, its average transaction fee is approximately $0.00052, making it more than 100 times cheaper than most Layer-1 blockchains.
Reports further revealed that the Aptos blockchain processes an average of 3 to 5 million transactions per day in 2026, with a record high of 12.3 million transactions on 2 May 2026. In addition, the network has experienced zero downtime since 2023 and is now approaching 4 billion lifetime transactions.
With all of this, Aptos has so far attracted a massive $350 million in total funding. Major investors that have shown interest in the network include Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, and Apollo Global Management.
Beyond these investors, major asset managers are also actively utilizing Aptos blockchain technology. In late 2024, BlackRock expanded its BUIDL fund, the world’s largest tokenized money market fund, and deployed $500 million onto the network. Meanwhile, Franklin Templeton and Securitize’s Apollo fund followed suit by launching tokenized asset products on Aptos.
This means that large institutions trust Aptos as the infrastructure for bringing real-world assets, such as money market funds, bonds, securities, and private credit, on-chain.
In addition to its technology and recent milestones, analytics platform DeFiLlama found that Aptos had a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $242 million at press time, with annualized fees reaching $11.1 million – A sign of sustained usage across the network.
Meanwhile, the stablecoin market capitalization on the network climbed to $1.93 billion, exceeding its DeFi TVL.