In 2019, Meta formalized its Libra project (which later became Diem). In association with other companies, the group of Mark Zuckerberg wanted to launch its own cryptocurrency, in order to facilitate remittances in the world.
The project has encountered resistance from many regulators and governments, including those in the United States and the European Union. And after repeatedly pushing back the launch of his crypto, Diem was finally let go. The intellectual properties of the association that governed the project were transferred to the American bank Silvergate.
But if Meta abandoned this cryptocurrency project, engineers who worked on Diem decided to take it over. In February, a company called Aptos started making headlines.
In a previous post, Mo Shaikh, the company's CEO, announced the creation of a new layer-1 blockchain, with the goal of creating the most secure and production-ready network possible.
“Aptos was built with a focus on absolute security, extensible scalability, and credible neutrality — values we know first-hand and viscerally understand,” he wrote.
“We are the original creators, researchers, designers, and builders of Diem, the blockchain that was originally designed to serve this purpose. Although the world may never have seen what we have built, our work is far from over,” added the CEO.
Aptos would already be a unicorn
In any case, the project is progressing quickly. Indeed, today, it has already raised $200 million in a strategic funding round led by a16z crypto with participation from Multicoin Capital, Katie Haun, 3 Arrows Capital, ParaFi Capital, IRONGREY, Hashed, Variant, Tiger Global, BlockTower, FTX Ventures, Paxos, Coinbase Ventures, and other entities.
The company has more than 25 employees. And apparently, it would already be a unicorn. If Aptos does not reveal its valuation yet, the TechCrunch site indicates that it has read a note indicating that the valuation of the shares of the round is $ 1 billion.
For now, Aptos is focusing on its network. In addition to announcing its fundraising, the company also opened its devnet. “Aptos is for people who want to build software that touches billions of other people,” Mo Shaikh explained.
In recent months, the company has already engaged in discussions with app developers. “They are building next-generation social media platforms, rich NFT experiences, Web3 games, creator-driven media and entertainment companies, cheap and secure payments, fintech products integrated with DeFi, and much more”, announced the CEO.
In addition, the project is also of interest to many major players in the crypto and blockchain market, to name only Binance and Coinbase.
