Disclaimer: Nansen has produced the following report in collaboration with Slice Analytics as part of its existing contract for services provided to Aptos Foundation (the "Customer") at the time of publication. While Aptos Foundation has the right to review and provide feedback to Nansen, Nansen maintains full editorial control over the publication of this report. All views expressed are the independent opinions of Nansen's research analyst(s) who are the author(s) named in this report. This report is intended for informational purposes only and does not serve as investment, financial, professional, or other advice. For more information, please refer to the disclaimer at the end of this report, as well as our Terms of Service.*

Overview

Aptos advanced significantly in H1 2025, strengthening its position as a high-performance Layer 1 optimized for institutional adoption, composable smart-contract development, and real-world asset integration. The rollout of Baby Raptr marked a key milestone in Aptos’ consensus roadmap, laying the groundwork for future upgrades aimed at enhancing scalability and resilience. The introduction of Move 2 and the new Fungible Asset Standard improved developer ergonomics, composability, and gas efficiency, making Aptos a more attractive destination for sophisticated on-chain applications. Core infrastructure was further bolstered by the launch of Chainlink oracles and the native deployment of xBTC, expanding Aptos' capabilities across DeFi and cross-asset liquidity.

On the ecosystem front, Aptos saw meaningful traction across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and enterprise verticals. Liquid staking grew steadily, led by platforms like Everstake and KofiFinance, while native stablecoins including USDC, USDe, and new Move-native primitives unlocked additional utility. Derivatives platforms such as MerkleTrade and MirageProtocol showcased Aptos’ potential to power performance-intensive financial products. Gaming and creator ecosystems also matured, with launches like Shelby illustrating how Move enables lightweight experimentation and modular social finance tools. On-chain activity remained strong throughout H1, with daily active addresses peaking above 1.4 million and a diverse set of applications, spanning social, trading, and infrastructure— contributing meaningfully to network throughput. Together, these advancements reinforced Aptos’ position as a scalable, production-ready Layer 1 tailored for institutional and consumer-grade adoption.

Key Developments: H1 2025

• Raptr, a core advancement in Aptos’ consensus architecture, entered production with its first live component, Baby Raptr. This deployment lays the foundation for future consensus upgrades including decoupled prefix voting and prefix commit logic. Aptos currently runs a hybrid model combining Jolteon*, a latency-optimized consensus protocol, and Quorum Store, a high-throughput data dissemination layer. The Raptr rollout marks a shift toward greater performance, scalability, and resilience in Aptos consensus.
• The Aptos Foundation released the Move 2 framework, enhancing the developer experience with improvements to ergonomics, upgradeability, and low-level control. Move 2 introduces composable modules, flexible entry points, and a new transaction flow design, allowing developers to write clearer, safer, and more powerful applications. Combined with tools for gas profiling and ecosystem-wide auditing standards, Move 2 positions Aptos as a high-performance chain for expressive smart contract development.
• Aptos launched the new Fungible Asset Standard, streamlining the token creation process for developers and reducing fragmentation across the network. The standard introduces modular upgrade paths, improved composability, and better alignment with Move-native design. Adoption from major ecosystem players underscores broad network support for this evolution. Complementing the standard, Aptos published Dispatchable Fungible Assets 101, a technical guide to implementing flexible dispatch patterns that enhance modularity and gas-efficiency in Move-based smart contracts, improving overall dApp scalability and developer experience.
• Chainlink went live on Aptos mainnet in H1 2025, marking a major milestone for oracle infrastructure across the ecosystem. Chainlink’s integration brings battle-tested price feeds and decentralized data services to Aptos developers, unlocking advanced DeFi use cases including dynamic collateralization, real-time liquidations, and automated derivatives. This strengthens Aptos’ infrastructure layer for composable and secure smart contract design.
• xBTC deployed on Aptos in H1 2025, bringing a decentralized wrapped Bitcoin asset natively to the ecosystem. xBTC is overcollateralized and maintains a 1:1 peg to BTC via verifiable reserves. This unlocks access to Bitcoin-native liquidity for Aptos-based DeFi, enabling use cases like BTC collateralized lending, trading pairs, and multi-asset yield farming.

Ecosystem

DeFi

• Since launching on mainnet in February 2025, Hyperion has seen rapid growth, surpassing $3 billion in cumulative trading volume and over $100 million in TVL. Building on this momentum, the protocol closed a strategic funding round led by OKX Ventures with participation from Aptos Labs, Mirana Ventures, and Arthur Hayes’ family office Maelstrom. Hyperion continues to expand its product suite with features like Vaults for simplified on-chain yield generation and plans for a Launchpad to drive asset distribution and ecosystem innovation.
• KofiFinance launched on Aptos with a focus on composable liquid staking. Kofi’s kAPT token represents staked APT and can be deployed across lending and AMMs. The protocol introduces modular reward strategies, DAO governance, and validator delegation, all optimized for Move. This contributes to a more capital-efficient staking environment and expands Aptos’ liquid staking design space.
• Amnis Finance joined the Aptos staking ecosystem, offering users a seamless interface for staking APT and accessing liquid staking tokens. Amnis prioritizes simplicity, yield transparency, and DeFi integrations, aligning with Aptos’ broader efforts to onboard the next wave of capital-efficient DeFi users.
• Moar Market launched on the Aptos mainnet, positioning itself as the credit layer for Aptos DeFi. Built using the Move language, Moar introduces trustless Credit Accounts that allow users to borrow against collateral and seamlessly deploy assets across Aptos-native strategies like lending, liquidity provisioning, yield farming, and trading. The protocol leverages Aptos infrastructure for speed and security, utilizing BlockSTM for parallel execution and AptosBFT for consensus, while supporting modular lending pools that accommodate a wide range of assets including LSDs, LP tokens, RWAs, and long-tail tokens.
• EchoProtocol introduced institutional-grade Bitcoin DeFi infrastructure on Aptos, enabling secure custody, on-chain minting, and capital-efficient lending markets backed by BTC. The protocol aligns with RWA tokenization and expands Aptos' role as a hub for multi-asset DeFi.Developers and users benefit from faster finality, improved liquidity routing, and increased confidence in cross-chain operations.
• MerkleTrade introduced a hybrid on-chain/off-chain leveraged trading platform built on Aptos, enabling users to access derivatives with near-instant execution and minimal slippage. Traders benefit from a mobile-friendly UX, community leaderboards, and non-custodial wallets. Merkle’s integration with Aptos showcases how performance and UX can coexist in decentralized finance.
• MirageProtocol launched perpetual futures trading on Aptos, offering a decentralized platform for derivatives with up to 50x leverage. The protocol features a dynamic risk engine, efficient funding rate mechanics, and seamless UX. Built in Move, Mirage demonstrates Aptos’ capacity to power scalable, high-performance derivatives platforms.
• Tapp Exchange launched on the Aptos mainnet, introducing a modular DEX architecture built around customizable “Tapp Hooks.” This framework enables developers to embed custom logic directly into swaps, unlocking programmable financial flows and composable liquidity strategies. The April testnet attracted over 20,000 unique wallets and processed more than one million transactions in its first week, signaling strong early traction within the Aptos DeFi ecosystem.

NFTs & Gaming

• TheLoonies expanded its footprint as a flagship NFT collection on Aptos by rolling out cross-platform integrations, merchandise partnerships, and staking mechanics. The project leveraged Aptos’s scalability to deliver low-cost minting, interactive holder experiences, and dynamic NFT traits.
• Mofumofu: Travelers, a collaboration between TOHO Animation and SaltSweeet, launched its first-ever PFP collection on Aptos mainnet selling out all 5,555 NFTs. The launch blends streetwear, folklore, and anime-inspired visuals, featuring rare sigils that unlock future story arcs and ecosystem perks. Backed by TOHO’s 3.24M+ YouTube subscribers and powered by SaltSweeet’s Web2 reach of over 20M followers, the project merges anime culture with Web3 co-creation.

Enterprise & RWAs

• Ethena deployed its synthetic dollar USDe on Aptos, expanding access to censorship-resistant and yield-bearing stablecoins within the ecosystem. USDe integrates with major DeFi protocols and introduces new yield opportunities across lending and AMMs. The launch solidifies Aptos’ positioning as a stablecoin-friendly L1 and highlights demand for scalable, decentralized stable assets.
• USDC and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) are launching on Aptos, enabling native USDC minting and seamless transfers across major blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. This eliminates bridge risk, improves capital efficiency, and positions Aptos as a stablecoin-native chain optimized for DeFi interoperability.
• Shelby emerged as a creator-focused protocol on Aptos, enabling digital entrepreneurs to tokenize reputation and build social capital layers for Web3. Using customizable smart contract templates, Shelby allows creators to build revenue streams around status, contribution, and access control, bridging social mechanics and financial infrastructure on Aptos.
• Aptos has established itself as a top three blockchain by real-world asset value, with over $725 million in tokenized assets on-chain per rwa.xyz. This growth reflects strong demand for private credit and institutional-grade financial products on Aptos, which has seen a significant increase in RWA activity in recent months. The surge highlights Aptos as a high-performance platform that is well-positioned to support the next wave of tokenized finance.

On-chain Data

Daily Transactions

Source: Nansen Query

Throughout H1 2025, Aptos maintained a stable level of daily transaction activity, consistently supporting a healthy baseline of on-chain throughput. This steady performance reflects the network’s operational maturity and reliability as it expands into regulated finance, institutional partnerships, and real-world use cases. With growing attention from public sector initiatives and an expanding developer ecosystem building on Move, Aptos demonstrated its ability to handle consistent user and application-level demand without fluctuation. The sustained throughput serves as a foundation for broader adoption across DeFi, enterprise, and consumer-facing applications.

Daily Active Addresses

Source: Nansen Query

Daily active addresses on Aptos remained consistently strong throughout H1 2025, with sustained user counts exceeding 1 million during key periods and peaking above 1.4 million in early February. The network maintained a resilient floor of 600,000+ active addresses per day, reflecting durable user engagement across multiple verticals. This steady performance was supported by the launch of new protocols such as Amnis Finance, Kana Labs, and Thala, which collectively expanded DeFi utility and liquidity options on Aptos. Continued investment in infrastructure by projects like Pyth Network and Switchboard also contributed to reliable developer tooling and data availability.

The rise in user activity coincided with the growth of Aptos’ gaming ecosystem, including partnerships with Overdare and the successful launch of game-integrated asset minting powered by Aptos Move. These efforts, combined with ongoing incentive programs and integrations by major exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, helped drive ecosystem stickiness and repeat user behavior. With daily active addresses showing resilience and breadth across both institutional and retail fronts, Aptos reinforced its position as a performant, developer-friendly Layer 1 built for long-term scalability and mainstream onboarding.

Top Entities by Users and Transactions

Source: Nansen Query - Top Entities by Users

Source: Nansen Query - Top Entities by Transactions

During H1 2025, the Aptos ecosystem showcased strong application-layer engagement, with usage patterns reflected across both user and transaction-level metrics. Aptos itself accounted for 97.95% of all unique users interacting on-chain over the six-month period, underscoring high levels of native protocol activity, particularly from core wallets and network infrastructure. This dominance was complemented by growing participation from key applications like social platform Chingari (1.12%) and DeFi protocols such as Aries Markets, Echelon Market, and PancakeSwap, which collectively made up a small but rising portion of the user base. These figures indicate ongoing efforts to diversify network usage beyond native functions while maintaining strong baseline engagement.

Transaction-level data highlights consistent usage across diverse sectors within the Aptos ecosystem. While Aptos itself generated the majority of activity at 69.48%, several key applications played significant roles in sustaining on-chain engagement. Chingari accounted for 15.33% of all transactions, driven by its social engagement features, while Cellana, and Switchboard, collectively contributed around 12% of all transactions on Aptos. This distribution reflects a vibrant and expanding set of applications that are actively contributing to the network’s throughput and utility. As more projects mature and scale on Aptos, these contributions reinforce the chain’s position as a performant, application-driven Layer 1.

Closing Thoughts

H1 2025 showcased Aptos’ maturation into a high-performance Layer 1 well-positioned to serve a growing spectrum of institutional, consumer, and developer needs. Major advancements at the protocol level—led by the rollout of Baby Raptr and the release of Move 2—signaled Aptos’ commitment to continuous innovation in scalability, modularity, and developer experience. Infrastructure improvements such as Chainlink oracles and the Fungible Asset Standard elevated the technical foundation of the network, while deployments like xBTC expanded Aptos’ liquidity base across major crypto assets. These developments created a robust platform capable of powering secure, composable applications at scale.

Ecosystem-wide activity in H1 further validated Aptos’ appeal. Growth in liquid staking via Everstake, KofiFinance, and Amnis demonstrated increasing demand for capital-efficient DeFi, while stablecoin and derivatives protocols like USDC, Ethena, MirageProtocol, and MerkleTrade showcased the breadth of financial innovation taking place on-chain. On the social and creator side, initiatives like Shelby introduced new models for engagement and monetization. These trends were supported by sustained on-chain metrics, with daily active addresses frequently exceeding one million and healthy transaction throughput maintained across both native infrastructure and a growing application set. Taken together, Aptos enters the second half of 2025 with strong momentum and a clear trajectory toward broader adoption across finance, gaming, and enterprise sectors.