Aptos [APT] starts 2023 with a bang, should Solana holders be worried?

• Aptos’s transaction speed advantage could cement itself as the ‘Solana Killer.’
• APT soared by more than 400% over the last month.

With its growing list of partnerships and product launches, Aptos [APT] has made the crypto world sit up and take notice. It recently wrapped up the first leg of its ambitious world hackathon tour in Seoul. 

Seoul, that's a wrap!

Thank you to the rockstar hackers who made the first stop on the #AptosWorldTour such a success.

We're blown away by the talent, ideas, and potential on Aptos.

This is where culture ? building.

Where to next? Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/2v1HRC2Vqy

— Aptos (@Aptos_Network) February 5, 2023

Furthermore, it expanded its footprints in the web 3 gaming ecosystem as well. Its partner METAPIXEL announced the upcoming launch of ‘Pixelcraft’ on the Aptos network through an official title reveal video. 

However, the next question on everyone’s mind would be whether all of this hype is enough to dethrone Solana [SOL] against which APT has been consistently positioned. 

Realistic or not, here’s APT’s market cap in BTC’s terms

Aptos has a clear advantage in this domain

Aptos is a layer-1, proof-of-stake blockchain launched in October 2022 by Meta’s (formerly Facebook’s) engineers after Meta failed to launch its own blockchain. The chain is developed using a Rust-based programming language called MOVE.

Unlike other blockchains, Aptos uses a parallel execution mechanism which helps in reducing latency and generating faster transaction speeds. Aptos challenges Solana precisely in this department.

According to ZebPay, Solana can process 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) while Aptos could clock in more than twice the number at 150,000 TPS. This throughput difference could shift the momentum decisively in APT’s favor in the long run.

Solana has also suffered from several network outages in 2022. In an interview, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko termed network outages as Solana’s curse.

Aptos’s NFT and DeFi spaces show promise 

APT’s total volume locked (TVL), while considerably less than Solana, has exhibited better growth of late. While SOL grew by 0.44% over the last seven days, APT increased by almost 4% in the same time period, data from DeFiLlama showed. 

APT’s TVL stood at $61.38 million at press time, primarily driven by Pancakeswap [CAKE], which had a dominance of almost 60%.

Source: DeFiLlama

Aptos’s growth has also been powered by its NFT collections. The NFT trade volume on the network reached its three-month high of $1.92 million recently. The expansion has been meteoric in the past two weeks. 

Source: Santiment

 How much are 1,10,100 APTs worth today?

Aptos’ growing appeal has been reflected in its price action of late during which it became one of the most profitable cryptos in the market.

The price exploded from around $3 at the start of the year to $15.57 at the time of writing. In the same time period, its market cap shot up to more than $2.6 billion. That being said, the price action of the last 10 days indicated retracement.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) descended from the overbought region. Though still above the neutral 50 level, there were early indications of a retracement.

The On Balance Volume (OBV) also started a move toward the south which implied that traders were looking to book profits after the bullish surge. The Awesome Oscillator (AO) was also in red. 

Source: TradingView APT/USD