- Aptos price has underperformed other cryptocurrencies this year.
- APT has plunged by more than 62% from its highest point in 2023.
- This performance is mostly because of its regular token unlocks.
Cryptocurrencies have done well this month as the Santa Claus rally gains steam. According to CoinGecko, the total market cap of all digital currencies has jumped to over $1.6 trillion. Some of the top-performing altcoins are Energi (NRG), Aurora, Stacks, and Connex.
Aptos token unlock ahead
One of the biggest cryptocurrencies that is not doing well is Aptos (APT). APT token was trading at $7.6 on Tuesday, where it has been in the past few days. This price is also a few points below last month’s high of $8.45.
Most importantly, while Bitcoin has jumped by more than 130% from the lowest level in December 2022, Aptos has crashed by more than 62% from the highest point this year. This plunge has brought its total market cap to more than $2 billion.
There are two main reasons why APT price has plunged hard in the past few months. First, the token has continued to dilute its existing investors through its regular token unlocks. According to CoinMarketCap, the total circulating supply for APT stands at over 278 million tokens against a total supply of over 1.068 billion tokens.
Aptos will unlock more than 24 million tokens on December 12. At the current price, these tokens are worth over $190 million and account for almost 9% of the circulating supply. These tokens will go to foundation, core contributors, investors, and the community.
Apto has been one of the most inflationary tokens in the market this year as the network has unlocked millions of tokens. This is one of the top reasons why APT has lagged behind the performance of other coins.
Token unlocks hurt existing investors by increasing inflation in the ecosystem. This is the same as how the Federal Reserve triggers inflation through quantitative easing (QE). In addition, in Aptos case, the tokenomics have always been biased towards insiders.
Aptos ecosystem woes
The other reason why Aptos price has lagged behind that of other coins is that its ecosystem is not doing well. One way to look at this is through the total value locked (TVL) in its DeFi ecosystem. According to DeFi Llama, the TVL in Aptos has jumped to over $65.7 million. The biggest players in the ecosystem are Thala, LiquidSwap, and Amnis Finance.
PancakeSwap, which launched on Aptos, has not gained any major market share in the ecosystem. It only has a TVL of just $4.95 million. And according to CoinMarketCap, the DEX handled just $400k in the past 24 hours. PancakeSwap’s Base platform handled over $2.79 million in the same period.
Looking ahead, Aptos price will likely remain in a narrow range as investors wait for this month’s huge unlock event.
Read more: How to buy PancakeSwap.
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