Aptos is one of the chains that has seen its fortune change the most in 2024 as it has made the best of the bull market. Just as L1 tokens and platforms were slowing down, Aptos managed to draw in all the elements it needed to become a growth leader.
It is one of the chains that has seen its influence grow the most in 2024, making the best of the bull market. Despite the primacy of Ethereum and Solana as L1 chains, Aptos rode the trend for alternative liquidity venues.
Aptos made most of its gains in the second year after its launch, after remaining relatively obscure thanks to the 2023 bear market. APT tokens had several rallies in 2024, peaking under $20. APT traded at $12.03 after its latest run in the past month.
The chain is charting its own path in the non-EVM compatible markets, which makes liquidity a little harder to raise. EVM-based or compatible chains have easier access to stablecoins, in addition to wrapped ETH or ERC-20 tokens.
Aptos gets a boost with native USDT liquidity
Aptos is one of the chains added to Tether Inc.’s list for native USDT, although some of the tokens were authorized to go back to their Ethereum version in the past few months. As of December 2024, it carried more than $323M in stablecoins, surpassing SUI with $313M. The native USDT is also supported by around $130M in bridged USDC.
In addition to using USDT for DeFi deposits and trading, Binance has also added wallets for Aptos-based stablecoins. After a long wait, the the chain’s version went live on Binance as of December 11.
🚨 The wait is over.
Support for native USDT on Aptos is now LIVE on @binance. Accelerate on-chain with deposits and withdrawals now open! ⚡ pic.twitter.com/PEcEgj961v
— Aptos (@Aptos) December 11, 2024
Aptos increased its total value locked by more than 1,800% in the year to date. Based on DeFi Llama data, the L1 chain now carries $1.31B in total value locked across its protocols. The chain expanded quickly by tapping successful DeFi protocols and onboarding stablecoins, the most important source of liquidity.
Bridging activity was also one of the main sources of liquidity growth. Over time, the chain bridged a total of $6.69B in value, with $3B in the year to date. The past 30 days led to $3M in additional bridged assets.
Other signs of growth include the gradual increase in fees raised by the protocol. For now, Aptos is still in the early stage where the chain subsidizes growth, which means the platform is operating at a loss.
Aptos has one of the highest expense-to-revenue ratios, surpassing all other L1s. The chain is also still going through new APT token releases, as only 42.86% of the supply has been released for circulation.
Boosted by valuable apps and TradFi tokenization efforts
Despite this, incentives on Aptos are enough to keep validators and keep fees relatively low. For users, this has resulted in a new record of 1.2M daily active users, with a baseline rate of around 700K daily active wallets, close to the levels on Ethereum. Aptos already carried more than 9M monthly active users, while handling 2B transactions to date.
The chain is now dependent on the success of its apps to draw in liquidity. The chain will carry Echo, its chief app for tokenizing Bitcoin (BTC) in a compatible token for Aptos. Echo has grown its TVL rapidly in the past quarter, with over $250M in liquidity. The project attracted more than 2,400 BTC locked on the Aptos chain, sparking a new source of borrowing liquidity.
Other large-scale DeFi apps include Thala Labs, the chief source of liquidity and DEX trades. Thala Labs also produces $3B in volumes, while drawing in $150M in additional liquidity for the L1 chain. Kana Labs has added another $4B in trading activity, while locking in another $191M in its DeFi suite.
Other sources of growth for Aptos are tests and tokenization coming from TradFi clients. Franklin Templeton and BlackRock have adopted the chain for tokenization tests, while Bitwise has launched its own Aptos Staking ETP.
Beyond its more serious DeFi and TradFi features, Aptos also added a user-generated token market. The Emojicoin platform, where users mint emojis and trade them similar to Pump.fun, achieved $1M in value since November 20, launching 1,933 new assets.
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