The global hit song of the same name has boosted APT's popularity. Which ecological projects are worth paying attention to?

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

The Move-based public chain has indeed performed well in the recent market, from the vigorous rally of the Sui ecosystem and the meme frenzy to the highly anticipated mainnet launch of the Movement ecosystem. The market continues to witness the Move-based public chain gradually stepping into the spotlight. Even the relatively low-profile Aptos within the Move ecosystem has recently started to rally.

Just as the heat of $APE has cooled down, the closely related $APT has begun to take over the market's enthusiasm. Yesterday, despite the overall market downturn and the sharp decline of altcoins, the price of $APT remained strong, and today it even rallied against the trend, breaking through $11 and reaching a new six-month high. At the same time, the growth of the ecosystem's TVL is also impressive: according to DefiLlama data, the current TVL of the Aptos ecosystem has grown to $900 million, with an increase of nearly nine times this year.

The main force of Aptos, the overseas community, is also in high spirits. Earlier during the $APT rally, the Korean community had the slogan "1$APT=1 apartment." However, this time the slogan is no longer about one coin equating to one apartment, but rather the catchy "APT APT APT APT APT APT……"

It seems that this slogan doesn't have much further meaning, but its origin is from a currently globally trending song “APT.” featuring a particularly catchy lyric.

What's going on? What is the connection between the recent surge of $APT and this song? Deep Tide's article will help you understand the background of this globally popular “APT.” and highlight some noteworthy projects in the Aptos ecosystem that have successfully capitalized on this trend.

This song might be more popular than you think

“APT.” is a collaboration between Rosé, a member of the globally bestselling girl group Blackpink, and the renowned singer Bruno Mars. Readers familiar with these two artists may know that this collaboration is a rather special cross-industry partnership.

The song “APT.” created by these two stylistically different artists did not face a drop in popularity due to the stark contrast; instead, it quickly became a global sensation, dominating music apps worldwide within a week of its release and breaking various records.

To be more specific, how popular is this song right now? The current social media buzz around “APT.” has surpassed the combined heat of all concepts and angles in the entire meme sector. Whether on social media or search engines, searching for "APT" now yields content solely related to this catchy pink song, while the cryptocurrency $APT's popularity has been temporarily overshadowed.

Is it a coincidence or a fan effect?

For Aptos, the global popularity of the song “APT.” is undoubtedly a good thing. Even if it has no direct connection to the project itself, this overwhelming heat is like a gift handed directly to them. In a time when memes are everywhere and enthusiasm is rampant, being able to ride the wave of a global topic is truly a rare opportunity for a crypto project, especially since the largest audience for this trend is the fervent Korean community towards $APT.

Similarly, some Aptos ecosystem projects that know how to capitalize on trends have already started to seize this opportunity:

How is the ecosystem developing under the heat?

As mentioned earlier, the growth trend of Aptos TVL this year is visually evident. Specifically, the rapid growth of Aptos TVL is backed by numerous excellent DeFi projects taking root and expanding within the Aptos ecosystem. Let's take a look at some outstanding projects currently in the Aptos ecosystem, leveraging this wave of popularity.

Aries Markets - The largest lending project in the Aptos ecosystem

As the largest DeFi lending project currently on Aptos, Aries Markets is also the first OG project to launch in the Aptos lending ecosystem. Currently, the TVL of Aries Markets alone has reached $260 million, accounting for more than a quarter of the total TVL of the Aptos ecosystem. The protocol has already facilitated over $400 million in loans. The strong TVL growth and high loan volume reflect the importance of Aries Markets in the Aptos ecosystem.

According to the official documentation, Aries Markets currently offers various functions such as lending, leveraged trading, and interest-bearing assets. A significant recent update from Aries Markets is the introduction of a new feature called "Efficiency Mode", which optimizes the asset utilization of Aries and Aptos users by increasing capital efficiency. This feature is initially applied to $APT category assets, allowing users to use APT/amAPT/stAPT as collateral and borrow assets from the corresponding APT category, with E-Mode providing up to 90% loan-to-value ratio.

Amnis Finance - The largest liquid staking project in the Aptos ecosystem

Amnis Finance is the first liquid staking protocol in the Aptos ecosystem and also the largest project in the same track: Amnis Finance's TVL exceeds $250 million, with over 300,000 stakers and a staking amount close to 25 million $APT. Additionally, the staking community of Amnis Finance is very active, with frequent interactions between the official account and the community.

Users can stake $APT in Amnis Finance and immediately receive an equivalent amount of $stAPT, which can also be used in other DeFi protocols within the ecosystem. Amnis Finance has also introduced the concept of yield tokenization. This process involves wrapping stAPT into standardized yield tokens (SY), then splitting them into principal tokens (PT) and yield tokens (YT).

Echo Protocol- The rising star bringing in massive funds

In addition to the earlier DeFi projects in Aptos, the recent growth of Aptos ecosystem TVL is largely attributed to the newly launched Echo Protocol. In less than a month since its launch, Echo has brought $147 million in TVL to the Aptos ecosystem.

Echo is a multifunctional protocol focused on the Move ecosystem, primarily providing cross-chain, liquid staking, and re-staking services. Its goal is to bring BTC liquidity into the Move ecosystem and introduce innovative re-staking solutions for BTC assets. At the same time, Echo seamlessly integrates with the BTC ecosystem, supporting all native BTC Layer 2 solutions (including Babylon).

Users can directly use Echo to cross-chain $uBTC into $aBTC on Aptos, where $aBTC is an asset pegged 1:1 with $BTC. Holders of $aBTC can earn multiple yields from Aptos, BTC Layer 2, and Echo rewards, while $aBTC can be used as collateral in various lending protocols and on decentralized exchanges for perpetual contracts.

Summary

As a twin star of the Move ecosystem alongside Sui, Aptos has indeed remained low-key during this cycle. However, with Sui setting a precedent, the price-leading model has indeed attracted market attention and invigorated the entire ecosystem. Considering $APT's past performance and the ongoing enthusiasm from the Korean community, perhaps $APT can further advance and go further with this wave of popularity.