Aptos Ecosystem Overview 2022 – Is Aptos really going to beat Solana?

Aptos is a new generation layer-1 blockchain project that focuses on providing the most secure and available blockchain to a large number of users worldwide. Aptos promises to become a layer-1 blockchain surpassing its two seniors, Ethereum and Solana, with a strong development team that has served for big projects like Meta’s (Facebook’s) blockchain project Diem.  Although the project is very new, thanks to owning a credible team, they have raised a large amount of capital from big investors in the market. The Aptos ecosystem is already quite complete with all the important pieces.

On October 18, 2022, Aptos officially launched on the mainnet. However, there has been a lot of conflicting information and opinions surrounding Aptos’s mainnet launch.

Aptos Ecosystem Overview

Move is a programming language developed from Rust, so there are some similarities. Rust is again the programming language used by Solana, Near, so the developer community from these blockchains can access Aptos and Sui more easily.

Since the launch of devnet, there have been hundreds of projects on Aptos, making it clear that this is an ecosystem with the potential to explode in the near future. This leads to some people feeling overwhelmed and difficult to filter out the bad projects.

However, that is the story in the devnet version, recently Aptos has run the testnet, the projects immediately deployed on the testnet will be appreciated more because they:

• Show the closeness and urgency in the implementation, also show the potential of the project team.
• Show an attachment to the Aptos system, ready to operate for a long time on this network.
• Hold the first mover advantage.

Therefore, it can be considered that the early testnet projects implemented on Aptos are the most notable projects. If you’re looking for airdrop opportunities on this system, these are IMPORTANT projects to experience.

AMMs/ DEXes

Pontem Network

Pontem Network is a studio that develops a product ecosystem on Aptos. The project not only develops DeFi products but also builds platform applications and infrastructure using the Move programming language. Pontem Network has also been working on the Aptos network since the early days, even in the previous phase of Diem blockchain development.

Currently, the project focuses on 5 main products: Liquidswap, Wallet, Pontem Block, EVM for Aptos and Governance Protocol. Among them stands out Liquidswap, the first AMM on Aptos. Since its launch, Liquidswap has maintained its performance with low cost, less slippage, fast speed and high security.

To do this, Liquidswap uses Uniswap V2’s engine for uncorrelated assets and Curve stableswap for correlated assets. The protocol will also integrate voting margin tokenomics (similar to veCRV) to encourage governance on the platform.

As soon as Aptos launched the testnet, the project was quickly deployed on the testnet. It quickly asserted its position, having more than 105,000 Liquidswap users. The Pontem wallet developed by the project has also surpassed the 30,000 download mark.

The backers of the project is also a strength. The project has more than 30 investors with big names such as Alameda Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Animoca Brands, NGC Ventures, CMS Holdings, Spartan…

In addition, in Q3, the project also often organizes livestreams, AMAs, blog sharing to educate the market to grow the user communities as well as share the direction of the project.

So far, Pontem Network’s Liquidswap is the first AMM project implemented on Aptos’ testnet, which is also the brightest project in this segment.

In addition, in Q3, the AMM/DEX segment on Aptos also appeared a few other notable projects that are only in development (not yet launched) or at the devnet stage.

• Umi Protocol: The AMM project has a fairly accessible UI/UX, and the project also has portfolio tracking products associated with other projects on Aptos. Although the product has not been officially launched, this is also a project worth waiting for.
• 1kx Protocol: The AMM/DEX project allows trading of both spot and perpetual futures. In addition, the project will also develop its own lending and stablecoin segment OSD in the future. The project shows a greater focus on development on the zkSync network.
• Aptoswap: It is a fairly “classic” AMM project with 2 main features: farm with pools related to APT and swap. In Q3, the project has continuously updated upgrades and announced partnerships with prominent wallets on Aptos.
• Saber: AMM is dedicated to Solana’s popular stablecoin, which will further develop a version on Aptos.
• Tsunami Finance: The perpetual futures trading platform allows users to trade with 30x leverage, now the project has a demo.
• Aries Market: Also a derivatives exchange on Aptos, Aries Market supports additional lending functions to make it more convenient for users to trade.

The fact that there are many projects implemented on the Aptos network is a plus point, but it can be seen that there are still no outstanding innovative projects. Current projects are still copying successful models on Ethereum and Solana on Aptos. While this may be the first step and easiest way to gain market share on Aptos, we can expect breakthrough ideas at the next stage.

Wallets

Wallet is the area with the most competition as well as many projects implemented on the testnet. The most dominant wallet is the Martian wallet with more than 100,000 downloads on the Chrome Store. In the testnet version, users can easily airdrop testnet APT tokens from Martian wallet and use them in other DApps. Martian has also integrated with a lot of projects on Aptos, covering almost the entire system.

Fewcha Wallet and Pontem Wallet are the next-place native wallets. Fewcha has 20,000+ downloads and also has certain coverage, though not as much as Martian. Meanwhile, Pontem Wallet is a wallet dedicated to Pontem Network products, when users using the products of this studio will have to use Pontem wallet. Currently, the wallet has also reached 30,000+ downloads.

In addition, there were the first multi-chain wallets to support the Aptos network in Q3. These include Coin98 Super App, Onto Wallet, HyperPay, BloctoApp.

Lending & Borrowing

Lending is also the core of a DeFi ecosystem, which is also one of Aptos’ thriving segments. The end of Q3 saw many lending projects quickly deployed on the testnet.

Aptin Finance

Aptin Finance is the first lending protocol project on Aptos, so it launched the product quite early, now users can get faucet (free testnet token retrieval) and experience products from Aptin’s lending, borrowing, staking.

As soon as the upgrade to the testnet was done, the project had many users experience the product, this is reflected in the market size of $27.55B (mainly APT testnet token). In Q3 the project has also updated the product continuously through 2 devnet phases and has also launched the tokenomics of APN. The project shows the active development of products and products at launch also have certain completeness.

This is also a lending project that needs to be prioritized the experience on Aptos, when on the testnet on-chain data will no longer be reset like on the devnet, airdrop / retroactive opportunities also start here.

There are also other new projects:

• Mobius Protocol: Lending protocol project with 2 features: borrowing and lending. This is also a project that has been deployed on the testnet and can use APT, BTC, ETH faucet to experience. However, at the moment the DApp is still quite sketchy.
• Vial Protocol: The project is considered a fork of Aave on Aptos, whose transactions and features are quite similar to Aave. Vial is currently only available in devnet and is only available on a weekly basis.
• Arco Protocol: Arco Protocol is a lending project quite similar to Aptin Finance, but a multi-chain deployment, which will next be deployed on Sui. In early October the project will be deployed on the testnet.

NFTs

On Aptos, there have been many NFT projects appearing, however, these projects often tend to redraw outstanding collections already on Ethereum / Solana such as Bored Ape, Crypto Punks, Azuki … At this stage, NFT projects are quite easy to implement, so this segment has the most projects in the whole system. Quality projects that are noticed by the community, after being selected include:

• Aptos Toad Over Load
• Bruh Bears
• Aptomingos
• Aptos Alpha Alpacas
• Aptos Monkeys

Regarding NFT Marketplace, because projects do not have real data on transaction volume and users, it is currently impossible to determine which is the most prominent NFT exchange on Aptos. However, in terms of frequency and quality of the project listed, the top 2 names are Topaz and BlueMove.

Topaz is the project that has listed the above outstanding collections, so it is used quite commonly. BlueMove is an NFT exchange that usually allows free mints of NFTs of the Aptos network, so many people are also using it.

Other pieces of the Aptos ecosystem

In addition to the main segments that make up the Aptos ecosystem, other segments also have outstanding projects:

Aggregators:

• Hippo Labs: As a DEX project, Liquid Aggregator on Aptos, this provides users with the best transaction rate by linking to many other DeFi projects. In Q3/2022, the project has integrated with key projects such as Pontem Network, Tsunami Finance, Aries Market, Argo, Ditto Finance … This was one of the most active projects in Q3.
• KX Finance: DEX Aggregator with multi-chain ambitions. Start with Aptos, Sui, Solana, then expand to Ethereum, BNB Chain. However, that prospect is quite remote.

Liquid Staking:

• Tortuga Finance: Stake APT receives tAPT, which is quite similar to Lido Finance. The project received investment from FTX and Jump Crypto.
• Ditto: Stake APT receives stAPT, which is not different from Tortuga Finance.

Stablecoins:

• Argo: The project to develop stablecoin USDA backed by APT. Argo operates under a Collateralized Debt Position model similar to MakerDAO with APT acting as ETH and USDA acting like DAI.

Launchpads:

• Proton: Not many projects in this segment have products. The first project with a product is Proton, which allows other users/projects to create their own tokens and raise capital on this platform.

Bridges:

• Mover: The first bridge project on Aptos. The main function is to bridge assets back and forth from the EVM and Aptos blockchains. This is also the rare project of the ecosystem to receive the investment. There are also many partners in the system ready to integrate Mover.

Name Services:

• Names.aptos: The project provides .aptos domain names to users. When it was first announced on Aptos, the project received support from Aptos Labs.
• apt ID: The project provides the .apt domain name, followed by the Space ID team with the popular .bnb domain project on BNB Chain.

Final words

Despite being on the testnet at the end of Q3, Aptos’s ecosystem is almost complete with many pieces. However, in contrast to the large number, the quality of the projects is not really impressive. Many projects recognize the potential of this network, announce activity here, but in reality, do not have a product yet.

Furthermore, the majority of the projects are mostly inspired by DApps already on Ethereum or Solana, which aim to use finished products to gain market share, so the above projects do not have much creativity and innovation.