Aptos blockchain launch: ‘Solana killer’ APT price crashes, founders mute Discord channel
The new aptos (APT) token was still down by 1.3% at the time of writing after it launched on 19 October and spent its first day of trading down by just over 40%.
The new token, which was labelled the ‘solana killer’, was trading earlier on 21 October at $7.30, according to CoinGecko. In contrast, solana (SOL) was changing hands at $27.43, also according to to CoinGecko.
SOL to USD
Aptos mired in criticism about TPS processing speed
After four years of development and millions of funding, the Layer 1 blockchain platform Aptos Labs finally went live with its mainnet on 17 October.
This was, however, mired by some users claiming its ability to process 160,000 transactions per second (TPS) was far from realistic as the TPS fell short.
Then shortly after this issue arose, it was noticed that Aptos Labs’ Discord channel had been shut down with one Twitter user asking: “If you guys [k]new something went wrong, why not announce it publicly instead of shutting down your discord.”
There was no immediate response to Capital.com's request for a comment from Aptos Labs.
What is your sentiment on SOL/USD?
Backed by Web 3.0 investors
Aptos has received backing from a series of notable investors within the crypto space – it closed a $200m (£178m) funding round back in March led by a16z, with participation from Tiger Global, FTX Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs and PayPal Ventures.
Four months later, it raised $150m (£134m) in a Series A round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, with participation from Binance Labs. The round pushed the company’s valuation to above $2bn (£1.7bn).
FTX recently announced that the exchange would list Aptos Labs’ APT token on 19 October.
Established by former Meta workers
Aptos Labs was created by ex-Meta employees Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching in 2021, with both co-founders previously working on Meta’s blockchain project Libra, which later rebranded to Diem.
The Diem project announced it would halt its services in February after more than two years and several attempts to launch its native digital currency.
Markets in this article
Related topics
