Layer 1 Blockchain Aptos Raises $150 Million From FTX, Jump Crypto
Important takeaways
- Aptos Labs, a blockchain startup led by a group of ex-Diem developers, has raised $150 million in a Series A funding round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.
- The raise takes the capital Aptos has landed this year to $350 million and reportedly brings the company’s value to $2 billion.
- The wider crypto community has raised questions about the project’s touted capabilities and the amount raised.
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The Series A funding round has brought Aptos Labs’ total capital raised in 2022 to $350 million.
Aptos closes $150 million funding round
Former Meta employees have raised $150 million in hopes of realizing Diem’s original goal.
Aptos Labs announced on Monday that it had raised $150 million in a Series A funding round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, bringing its total funds raised in 2022 to $350 million. A number of leading venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Multicoin Capital and Circle Ventures, also participated in the latest round.
According to an initial blog post published in February, Aptos aims to be the “most secure and scalable Layer 1 blockchain” in the world. It is developed and led by former Meta employees who worked on Diem (formerly known as Libra), Meta’s doomed permissioned blockchain-based stablecoin payment system. Aptos hopes to build and enhance Diem’s work with the same group of renowned scientists and researchers.
“Aptos was designed with an emphasis on absolute security, extensible scalability, and credible neutrality—values that we know firsthand and viscerally understand,” the February post said. It gave little insight into how the project will achieve decentralization or deal with the so-called “blockchain trilemma.” Commenting on the increase in a press release, Aptos Labs co-founder and CEO Mo Shaikh said Aptos is optimizing for scalability, security and ease of use. “We have known for some time that due to issues such as interruptions and downtime, current blockchains are not fit for purpose when it comes to mass adoption of Web3,” he said.
Several similar Layer 1 blockchains with high transaction throughput, included Solana, Celoand Polygon, has suffered major network outages over the past year, requiring validator coordination to restart and bring the networks back online. Aptos now claims it’s building a “next-generation Layer 1” that will presumably circumvent these issues — but the crypto community isn’t convinced.
For example, Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer asked his Twitter followers what Aptos can do that Solana can’t. Popular independent Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano black with a dig at Solana-involved venture capital firm Multicoin Capital, saying that “gives Multicoin a second chance to dump on retail.” Some high-profile crypto personalities also raised concerns over the amount the project had raised. Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of crypto market-making firm Wintermute, asked how many millions it takes to launch a blockchain shortly after the announcement broke, as the renowned crypto trader and Just up podcast co-host Cobie ironically black “as much as you can get.”
In accordance Bloomberg, the latest $150 million raise likely doubled Aptos Labs’ March valuation of more than $1 billion. In comparison, the leading smart contract blockchain, Ethereum, raised close to $18.4 million in 2014.
According to the press release, Aptos will use the fresh capital to support the project’s development and build a blockchain that will bring “the next billion users.”
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
