Aptos Labs builds and maintains the Aptos blockchain, a layer-1 network that emerged from Meta’s abandoned Diem (formerly Libra) project. Founded in 2022 by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching — both former Meta engineers who worked on Diem — the company launched its mainnet in October 2022 after raising over $400 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, FTX Ventures, and Jump Crypto.
The Aptos blockchain uses the Move programming language, which was originally developed at Meta for the Diem project. Move’s design emphasizes resource safety and formal verification, making it harder for developers to accidentally create vulnerabilities in smart contracts. This technical foundation differentiates Aptos from Solidity-based chains like Ethereum.
Aptos targets high throughput with its Block-STM parallel execution engine, which processes transactions concurrently rather than sequentially. The network claims theoretical throughput exceeding 100,000 transactions per second, though real-world numbers depend on transaction complexity and network conditions.
The company has focused heavily on partnerships in Asia and the Middle East, signing deals with Microsoft, Google Cloud, and several large Korean and Japanese enterprises. Aptos has invested in DeFi ecosystem development, NFT infrastructure, and gaming integrations to grow its user base beyond crypto-native audiences. The APT token launched at mainnet with a fully diluted valuation above $8 billion, making it one of the largest blockchain launches in history despite launching during the 2022 bear market.
