Aptos token, APT, became the most profitable crypto asset in January among the hundred largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization, according to the CoinMarketCap ranking. The blockchain created by the descendants of Meta, aka the former Facebook, shot to fame as the "Solana killer." However, while initially everyone thought it was about niche and technology, it came true because of the price action of its token.
Aptos became a real sensation in 2023, when its token price rose from $4 to $20 at peak and produced a furore commensurate with that demonstrated by Solana in 2021. Such powerful price action led to an increase of more than $2 billion in APT's market capitalization. If all Aptos tokens were on the market, it would be the seventh largest cryptocurrency right now.
Secret of Aptos' (APT) success
Like its predecessor, the success of the Aptos token in January was probably due to the fact that 97% of its circulating offering was in the wallets of a centralized group of investors, amounting to 20 addresses. There is thus every reason to believe that the inflated APT price was due to collusion.
At Solana, however, Sam Bankman-Fried was responsible for this with his dark magic of market making.
This collusion may have been further monetized through the greed of retail investors, especially those from the Upbit crypto exchange, when APT trading volumes on a major South Korean exchange exceeded all imaginable values.