This is behind the 250 percent price rally

The crypto market is slowly recovering from its rapid crash in 2022. The big winner of the early-year rally? Aptos, one of the most controversial new blockchains on the market. In the last two weeks, the price of the token has surged 250 percent to over thirteen US dollars, almost scratching its all-time high. But investors could be in for a rude awakening.

Officially started last fall and founded by two leading minds behind “Diem” – the scrapped Facebook blockchain – some Aptos sell as great hope, as “Solana” killers. Others warn of a dodgy cash grab. Because, among other things, the opaque distribution of the tokens raises questions about the sustainability of the hype project.

The official explanation for the current pump? Among other things, the growth of the still young Aptos NFT markets. Collections such as Aptomingos – a set featuring cartoon flamingos – and Aptos Monkeys have generated tens of thousands of dollars in trading volume in the last 24 hours, with reserve prices skyrocketing in recent weeks.

But the price jump could simply be market manipulation to boost the price before new coins hit the market. At the beginning of February previously blocked tokens will be unlocked by investors and the team. They paid between 4 and 7 cents per token. It is currently at almost $14.

The unlock plan for Aptos. Source: Aptos

So far, only around 145 million tokens are in circulation, around 25 percent of the coins already available. This number will double by the end of the year and quadruple from 2024 – to almost half a billion tokens. The total amount: over 1.5 billion tokens, unlocked by 2032. Already today, Aptos would have a total market capitalization of almost 14 billion US dollars.

Half of these tokens are held by the “community”., the rest split between the Aptos Foundation, developers and early investors, most of them VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z. It is also unclear how exactly the “community” breaks down.

Speed ​​disappoints so far

The start of Aptos in autumn 2022 was bumpy and plagued by technical problems. The price fell almost 70 percent after the launch. Officially, the blockchain is said to have a speed of 160,000 transactions per second, eclipsing even the “fastest blockchain” in the world, Solana. It reaches 65,000 transactions.

The reality? According to data service provider Travemove, Aptos currently processes just 7 transactions per second – less than Ethereum, which is notoriously slow.

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