Ex-Diem developers raise additional $150 million from FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto

2 years ago

Aptos Labs, a blockchain startup founded by erstwhile Diem developers announced that it has closed a $150 cardinal Series A backing circular led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.

Founded little than a twelvemonth ago, the startup had earlier raised $200 million successful a effect circular led by a16z. With the latest funding, the startup has a cumulative superior of $350 cardinal and has reached a valuation of $2 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Commenting connected the concern round, a spouse astatine FTX Ventures, Ramnik Arora said:

“For blockchain exertion to scope the adjacent cardinal users, we request to prioritize scalability, safety, and easiness of use. Aptos does precisely this’

Other investors successful this circular see a16z crypto, Multicoin, Apollo, Griffin Gaming Partners, Franklin Templeton, Superscrypt, and Circle Ventures.

From Diem to Aptos

In January of 2022, Meta showed signs of halting the improvement of its Diem crypto project. The tech elephantine faced beardown absorption from regulators, starring to an eventual sell-off of Diem’s improvement tools to Silvergate successful a $200 cardinal deal. Diem’s CEO Stuart Levey stated that:

“it nevertheless became wide from our dialog with national regulators that the task could not determination ahead.”

Aptos’ co-founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, halfway developers starring the Diem project, took a changeable to revive the dying Diem blockchain. Consequently, in February, the duo led a squad of erstwhile Meta employees moving connected the Diem task to recovered Aptos, with a ngo of delivering “the safest and astir production-ready blockchain successful the world.”

The Aptos Vision

Aptos is simply a layer-1 blockchain task seeking to code cardinal issues similar scalability, security, and usability, impeding the wide adoption of Web3 solutions.

It was developed utilizing Move (a programming connection down Diem). The task seeks to connection highly scalable, safe, decentralized, and affordable solutions to billions of net users upon launch.

Speaking connected the launch, Aptos’ co-founder Mo Shaikh said:

“We’re gathering a blockchain to beryllium the reliable instauration for Web3 that ushers successful users from astir the satellite to acquisition the benefits of decentralization.”

Since its motorboat 7 months ago, the task has made important advancement successful its developments. In March, it launched its developer testnet, with 20,000 operational nodes running. The task is presently astatine the 2nd signifier of its Incentivized Testnet launch, with node operators required to trial its staking and node estimation frameworks.

With the Aptos Hackathon and Grants program, galore developers are already opting to physique connected the platform. So far, they person secured partnerships with Google, and projects similar Pontem Network, Nutrios, and Solrise are gathering with the Move tools. The Aptos mainnet is expected to beryllium launched by the extremity of September 2022.

The station Ex-Diem developers rise further $150 cardinal from FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.

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