Former Meta employees and key figures from the firm’s defunct stablecoin project Diem have secured $200 million for a new project called “Aptos.”
Aptos remarked that they had been able to put their ideas into action since leaving Meta (previously Facebook). They cut through the red tape and created a whole new network.
Former Novi — Meta’s crypto unit — strategic partnerships lead Mo Shaikh and tech lead Avery Ching cofounded Aptos. The two are now the CEO and CTO of the new company. Both left Diem in December, just before the company sold to Silvergate Capital in February of this year.
The team is working on a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain built in part on Move. It’s a coding language created specifically for Diem. The company is now working to expand its developer ecosystem and attract new blockchain initiatives. It promises to be a low-cost, secure, and scalable network.
Strategic Funding Proceeds
Aptos’ $200 million strategic investment round was led by capital venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to a March 16 release. Three Arrows Capital, FTX Ventures, Paxos, and Coinbase Ventures were among the firms that backed him.
The money will go toward hiring new employees and supporting businesses, brands, and builders. Those interested in developing Aptos blockchain projects. Several DeFi, NFT, Web3, social media, and payment applications are already in the works, according to the startup.
Aptos refused to give a particular valuation in an interview with TechCrunch. It did, however, suggest that it is well into unicorn territory, with a valuation of around $1 billion.
Public Devnet Launch
Aptos has also created a public devnet with an open-source codebase to coincide with the funding announcement. Big names like Anchorage, Binance, and Coinbase have provided assistance and contributed code to the devnet, according to the team.
According to the statement, an incentive testnet will launch later in Q2. This is in order to assist expand the network and stress test it as it moves closer to mainnet. In anticipation of such, they encourage validators and other network operators to join their community immediately.
Mainnet expects to start in Q3 of this year, according to Aptos. Before the network goes live to the general public, they granted developers about six months to establish projects.
Aptos’ Blockchain Focus
Aptos’ blockchain focuses on absolute safety, extendable scalability, and genuine neutrality, according to the company. This while being free to build on its ideas without subject to heavy regulatory inspection, as was the situation with Diem.
The concepts they developed back then are still applicable and will form the cornerstone for a secure, scalable, and upgradeable Web3. Their decentralized and permissionless access ideas moves very swiftly and will develop in the open.
