Aptos does not position itself as a general-purpose L1, but rather as a home for global traders, focusing on a global trading engine.

Guest: Avery Ching, Co-founder and CEO of Aptos

Interview & Article by: Anderson Sima, Executive Editor of Foresight News

By 2025, stablecoins have emerged as a global strategic territory. Whether in the political center of Washington, the financial core of Wall Street, or international hubs like Dubai and Hong Kong, there is fierce competition for this new track.

However, the seeds of this transformation were sown six years ago. Zuckerberg from Silicon Valley was the first to propose reshaping the payment system with stablecoins. In his vision, over 30 billion users across more than 190 countries covered by Facebook would use a stablecoin called Libra—meaning that over a third of the global population would directly enter the crypto world.

But Zuckerberg's ideas were too ahead of their time, and regulatory crackdowns led to Libra's demise. However, Libra's legacy has given rise to two important players in the Web3 world—Aptos and Sui.

During Token 2049 in Singapore, Foresight News interviewed Avery Ching, the founder and CEO of Aptos. Avery was born in Hawaii and earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University. He worked at Meta for over 10 years, during which he was responsible for the technical work of projects like Libra and Novi.

After the Libra project could not continue, Avery Ching, along with a group of engineers and colleagues from Meta, founded the Aptos public chain around 2022 and took over as CEO at the end of 2024, continuing to lead Aptos forward.

Avery is warm and polite, embodying the "Aloha" spirit of his birthplace—an approach to life characterized by kindness, respect, and compassion towards others, nature, and oneself. Below is the edited interview content.

Foresight News: It’s already halfway through 2025. Can you summarize Aptos's progress in the first half of the year in one word?

Avery Ching: If I had to choose one word, I would say "radical." In the past, many blockchain networks were general-purpose L1 or L2 networks, but we are the first to attempt a targeted approach. We have taken a very radical approach in two areas: first, building a global trading engine through the Decibel project, and second, advancing decentralized cloud computing through the Shelby protocol. We believe these are the two core technologies in the crypto space for the next three to five years, and we are fully committed to accelerating their development.

Unlike other projects in the market, which typically have L1 and L2 first and then build ecosystems on top, we aim to tightly integrate L1 with the ecosystem, allowing both to work in synergy. This approach is very unique and can be considered radical.

Foresight News: Besides Decibel and Shelby, what other significant progress has the Aptos team made in the past few months?

Avery Ching: I represent Aptos Labs, not the entire Aptos ecosystem. The Aptos ecosystem has also shown strong performance in project growth, with projects like Hyperion driving significant increases in DeFi trading volume. Currently, Aptos ranks among the top public chains in terms of trading volume, TVL (Total Value Locked), and other liquidity metrics. We offer transaction confirmation times as low as 100 milliseconds and transaction fees of less than one cent, making it one of the cheapest and fastest networks available. This has driven widespread adoption of stablecoins like USDT, USDC, USDE, PYUSD, and more stablecoins will join in the future. (Editor’s note: The day after the interview, the stablecoin USD1 under WLFI announced its launch on Aptos.)

Additionally, RWA is also very active in the Aptos ecosystem. According to market statistics, we rank in the top three in the RWA space, with financial institutions like Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, and Apollo issuing money market funds and other products on Aptos. All of this indicates that Aptos is becoming a global trading engine, with rapid growth in user adoption, liquidity, and asset onboarding.

Foresight News: Recently, DAT has been very popular globally, and companies like MicroStrategy are continuously pushing Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. Do you think institutions will adopt similar strategies to accumulate Aptos tokens? How does Aptos view this trend?

Avery Ching: We are closely collaborating with several partners to prepare for the launch of ETPs and ETFs, exploring Aptos's role in traditional finance (TradFi). Aptos has unique advantages in branding, products, and background, which gives traditional financial institutions confidence in us. We have already partnered with Bitwise to launch an ETP, and the ETF is also making progress. If Aptos can launch DAT, we believe that with our close connections on Wall Street and in the crypto space, we will succeed.

Foresight News: Do you think the U.S. SEC will approve Aptos's related ETP or ETF? Other tokens like Solana and Ripple are also vying for similar opportunities.

Avery Ching: I think it will take time, but we are optimistic. With the gradual clarification of regulations, such as the advancement of the "Genius Act," we are actively participating in the regulatory process, discussing the definitions of mature and immature networks. Aptos is well-positioned to connect TradFi and DeFi, which gives us a favorable position in the regulatory environment.

Foresight News: In August of this year, you gave a speech on cryptocurrency in the U.S. Congress. It was a very special experience; what insights did you gain?

Avery Ching: I was honored to be invited to testify at the House Agriculture Committee hearing, and we were one of only four representatives to share insights as builders. We believe that a clear definition of market structure is very important. Currently, many terms are not well-defined, and clear rules can help people understand how to launch projects compliantly. The progress of the "Genius Act" will bring more innovation to the U.S. and even globally. We are very excited about the rapid actions taken by the executive branch and Congress (both the House and Senate) in promoting legislation.

Foresight News: Speaking of policy, the Trump administration had a significant push for the crypto industry. What are your thoughts on Trump?

Avery Ching: There is no doubt that the Trump administration played an important role in advancing the U.S. crypto agenda. The progress of the "Stablecoin Transparency Act," the "Genius Act," and the "Digital Asset Clarity Act" is inseparable from the government's push, including the appointment of David Sacks (White House advisor on AI and cryptocurrency) and the White House's release of position papers on the development of DeFi in the U.S. These policies not only affect Congress but also have a profound impact on state governments and the entire global industry.

Foresight News: Next, let's talk about Aptos's plans and growth strategies for the second half of 2025.

Avery Ching: In the first half of the year, we focused on the core use cases of crypto and established key partnerships, such as Decibel and Shelby. Now we are fully committed to developing code and supporting products to create the next generation of trading and cloud computing experiences. For Shelby, we see tremendous interest from the AI, creator, and enterprise sectors, with dozens of partners eager to leverage our products. These products are unprecedented in the crypto space, and we are working with partners to develop the best applications.

Foresight News: How does Aptos attract developers and users? Projects like Polymarket and Pume.fun are very popular; how does Aptos create star projects?

Avery Ching: There are not many success stories in Web3 projects; Polymarket, SushiSwap, Hyperliquid, and Pump.fun are among the few successful examples. Aptos adopts a vertically integrated strategy; we believe that building products solely on L1 is not enough; we must span the entire tech stack. This approach enhances product experience and drives innovation in other parts of the ecosystem. For example, we are reducing block time from the industry-leading 100 milliseconds to 65 milliseconds next month, and it may even reach 20 milliseconds. This not only improves transaction speed and reduces slippage but also supports new scenarios like micropayments. This full-stack optimization brings greater opportunities for success to the Aptos ecosystem.

Foresight News: Decentralized exchanges (DEX) have been very popular in recent years. How do you view the future of DEX?

Avery Ching: DEX is an amazing product, like Perp, which allows users to gain leveraged exposure without needing to have the underlying assets on-chain or on an exchange. The advantage of DEX is that it can bring assets to market faster and reach a broader international audience, while centralized exchanges are limited by regulations. We believe that a global trading engine is the future trend, and traffic will gradually shift on-chain. Hyperliquid is a great starting point, but in the future, there won't be a single DEX dominating the market. We see that centralized exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and OKX are very successful, and the DEX space will also see 10 to 20 successful exchanges, with Decibel striving to be among the top.

Foresight News: How does Aptos stand out among numerous L1 networks?

Avery Ching: We do not position ourselves as a general-purpose L1 but rather as a home for global traders, focusing on a global trading engine. We optimize the underlying technology, chain, and code to provide the best trading and decentralized cloud computing experience. This is our core differentiating advantage.

Foresight News: In emerging fields like AI, RWA, and on-chain trading, which direction does Aptos see the most potential?

Avery Ching: The global trading engine covers many areas. In RWA, we hope to see assets not only on-chain but also tradable on exchanges, such as packaging loans into products for trading. In AI, Shelby focuses on data licensing and trading markets, for example, data generated from the internet or autonomous vehicles can be traded on-chain for AI training or inference. This creates an innovative flywheel of value creation (Shelby) and value exchange (Decibel).

Foresight News: Will AI become an entry point for large-scale adoption in the crypto space, or is it just a bubble?

Avery Ching: AI needs targeted applications. Shelby focuses on the infrastructure and data market for AI training, while in the trading field, AI can be used to build smart portfolios, such as achieving dynamic rebalancing through Decibel. AI agents may represent users in trading, payments, and other operations in the future, connecting the crypto world with the traditional internet. As long as the use cases are clear, AI has enormous potential in the crypto space.

Foresight News: Stablecoins are an important component of the crypto space. How do you view their future?

Avery Ching: Stablecoins are on-chain assets that tokenize fiat currencies, sometimes with yields. They are the primary use case for exchanges and have gained widespread adoption on Aptos due to low costs and fast confirmations. We are exploring payment scenarios in emerging markets with partners like Bitso and Yellow Card, enhancing user experience through privacy technologies (such as confidential transactions that hide balances) and Web2 authorizations (like Google or Apple account logins). Aptos's low fees and high throughput make it an ideal platform for stablecoin trading.

For example, today, it is difficult for me to convert my dollars into euros; I have to go somewhere, follow the exchange rate, and visit a specific institution during their working hours. But in the crypto space, I can trade with the push of a button and obtain any stablecoin I want right now.

Foresight News: How will Aptos leverage APT as the core token of its ecosystem?

Avery Ching: APT is the core foundation of the token economy within the Aptos ecosystem. First, it serves as the gas fee payment token for the Aptos network, and these gas fees are completely burned after transactions are completed. At the same time, it also protects network stake delegation. Therefore, stakers will receive APT rewards for protecting the network from attacks. Additionally, it is used for governance and other functions; thus, it is a very core functional and utility token of the Aptos network. That said, we do expect APT to function like a country's infrastructure, with roads, services, and taxes, ultimately providing economic growth opportunities for companies like Meta, Amazon, and Tesla.

Similarly, we hope to build amazing businesses on Aptos, and we want to see very successful projects or enterprises built on Aptos. We are very excited about the prospects of our own projects through Decibel and Shelby, but we will also see many new projects that will leverage Aptos's unique capabilities. What we are also hearing is that enterprises want to deploy at scale. They have 100,000 or 5 million real users, but in the blockchain world, very few networks can truly support this, whether due to scalability, latency, or cost issues. Aptos is the only network that can meet all three of these conditions, and we are very excited to collaborate with those traditional large companies, which is where our confidence lies.

Foresight News: If you could have dinner with any historical or modern figure, who would you choose?

Avery Ching: I would choose Elon Musk. He is an outstanding innovator, and the technological achievements of Tesla, X, and SpaceX are breathtaking. It would be incredibly exciting to discuss developing the next generation of AI or blockchain products using Aptos's scalable technology with him.

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