The Predicament of Aptos: From Star Project to Ecological Maze

"The chain is fast, the heart is in pain, and the money is scarce." This sentence expresses the feelings of many early supporters of Aptos. As one of the "Move twins," Aptos's situation stands in stark contrast to the flourishing Sui. Despite entering the market with high TPS, the Move language, and strong capital support, Aptos seems to be trapped in a predicament that is hard to escape.

The Dilemma of Ecological Growth Stalling

Aptos was launched in 2022, backed by the former Meta team, and attracted widespread attention as a "next-generation L1." However, as market enthusiasm cooled, its technological advantages gradually lost their appeal. Data shows that the number of daily active addresses on Aptos has dropped to around 1 million, with daily transaction counts around 3 to 4 million, while Sui, which also uses the Move language, has seen daily transaction volumes exceed 10 million, with DEX trading volumes and application revenues far surpassing those of Aptos.

False prosperity driven by resources

The ecological expansion of Aptos heavily relies on a "resource-driven" model rather than genuine market demand. This approach includes distributing a large number of tokens to partners, introducing well-known DeFi projects, and attracting leading institutions to participate in ecological construction through over-the-counter trading. However, this "quick-fix" strategy has not resulted in substantial user growth; instead, it resembles more of a "resource arbitrage game":

• After the leading DeFi projects are launched, user growth is limited, and the unlocked tokens are quickly sold off.
• TVL shows surface growth, but is mostly "display" funds, lacking real liquidity.
• Resources are skewed towards "airdrop" projects, neglecting native developers and hindering the ecosystem's self-sustainability.

The failure of the ecological support plan

The LFM program launched by Aptos aims to support ecological projects, but the airdrop for the first member Amnis Finance has sparked controversy. Out of 440,000 addresses, only 10,000 people received the airdrop, leaving a large number of genuine users unable to benefit. This incident exposes the shortcomings of Aptos in project review and community governance.

Aptos's "ecosystem support" seems to be more surface-level, lacking substantial ecosystem co-construction. Although a large amount of resources was provided to Amnis, the entire process was more about form than substance, ultimately leading to a public relations misstep:

• Failed to form a synergy with the core ecosystem
• Lack of reasonable suggestions and community guidance on airdrop logic.

Internal Governance Crisis

In the past year, there have been frequent personnel changes at Aptos, including the departure of CEO Mo Shaikh, Head of Product Design Jessica Anerella, and Head of Product Cathy Sun, raising concerns in the market about its internal governance.

There are reports that Aptos has been conducting OTC transactions for APT at prices far below the market value. Shortly after this news broke, several executives and employees with venture capital backgrounds left the company one after another. This series of events may be related to OTC利益输送 and also reflects Aptos's overall poor performance after the token issuance.

Community Disappointment and Doubts

Aptos was once highly anticipated, but it is now mired in community skepticism and disappointment. Many community members criticize its lack of market sensitivity, unclear strategic direction, and chaotic internal management. Some point out that Aptos has deviated from the Web3 path in terms of market intuition, strategic layout, user maintenance, and ecological co-construction, resembling more of a rigid traditional Web2 enterprise.

A year ago, Aptos and Sui were on the same starting line, and Aptos even had the upper hand. However, in just one year, the development trajectories of the two have diverged significantly. Some community members bluntly pointed out that Aptos has internal inefficiencies, using "compliance" as an excuse to delay progress, which is at odds with the vibrant spirit of Web3.

Although the halo of capital can bring temporary prosperity, the long-term development of public chains still relies on user accumulation and the sustainability of the ecosystem. In today's fiercely competitive L1 track, whether Aptos can break through the encirclement and rise again remains an unknown.