Here’s why Aptos transaction volume surged over 3500%

Layer-1 network Aptos saw a 3,570% increase in its daily volume on August 13 after recording 51.6 million transactions. The surge in transaction volume was due to the launch of a new version of the click-to-earn game Tapos 2.

The launch of the first version in May also caused a similar surge in Aptos activity. The network achieved its highest-ever daily transaction volume at the time, with 115.4 million transactions and a peak transaction per second (TPS) of  32,000 TPS.

Tapos adoption highlights Aptos’ strengths

Following its recent record transactions, Aptos’s daily transaction volume now accounts for two out of the top three transaction volumes ever by a Layer-1 network. The network’s 115.4 million transactions on May 25 remain the highest ever, followed by Sui Network’s 65 million.

Aptos blockchain was launched in 2022 by former Facebook engineers as a better alternative to first-generation smart contract networks such as Ethereum and Solana. While it has shown its higher capacity, the network has yet to see much adoption.

However, the arrival of Tapos Cat and other decentralized applications has brought a new wave of users to the platform. Tapos Cat is a tap-to-earn game where users earn $HEART tokens by tapping on a virtual cat. Although the game attracts gas fees, they are negligible, and the first 72 hours of playing time are free, encouraging more users to try it out.

Interestingly, the high volume of transactions has not impacted the network’s transaction costs. Its gas fee remains very low even as it processes more transactions. This highlights the network’s strength as a scalable layer-1 contract capable of high performance regardless of on-chain activity.

It has seen increased adoption this year, with  20 million unique users in 2024 and over 1 billion transactions processed already. More DeFi protocols are launching on the network, causing its total value locked (TVL) to double this year.

APTOS struggles to catch up with Ethereum and Solana as APT token struggles

Despite its high throughput, whether the network could compete with established heavyweights such as Ethereum and Solana is questionable. According to Defillama, Its $389.17 million TVL ranks it 20th among all Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchains.

Aptos fans believe this will happen and point at its TPS, which is 50x higher than Ethereum’s and 10x above the Base network. However, that might take a while as it does not have a first-mover advantage, and its programming language, Move, is relatively new.

Meanwhile, the surge in Aptos blockchain activity positively impacted the Aptos token APT price today, rising from $6.595 to $6.953. However, the gains were shortlived, and the token is now down 2.5% along with the rest of the market.

Despite the price decline, APT remains one of the best-performing assets over the last seven days, rising 32.5%. Investors hope the token will sustain that positive momentum for longer, enabling a reversal of its poor performance in 2024. The token has declined by 32.5% year-to-date.

Its poor performance is due to several factors, but the biggest has been the multiple unlocks of APT tokens, increasing supply. The project has been unlocking 11.31 million tokens on the 11th and 12th of each month since May 2024 and will continue until October 2026.