Author: Alex Liu, Foresight News
Aptos public chain was created by some members of Facebook’s former blockchain team, Diem, after they went independent. They raised a whopping $350 million. After a successful testnet launch and a year and a half of the mainnet being live, the ecosystem projects are maturing, but most have not issued their own coins yet. How can one maximize the benefits of the Aptos ecosystem? This article takes stock of the main potential projects in the ecosystem and provides detailed interaction pathways.
Aptos ecosystem TVL ranking’s top 5 protocols on DefiLlama, only Thala has issued coins.
Potential Projects
Aries Markets
Aries Markets is the largest lending protocol in terms of TVL on Aptos and overall. It is eligible for incentives from the Aptos Foundation. Currently, users can earn APT token subsidies by lending zUSDT and zUSDC (USDT and USDC bridged by LayerZero) in the protocol, with substantial interest rates. Besides receiving airdrops, it is also a good place for daily deposits and loans.
Aries Markets has introduced a point system where users can earn 1 point for every dollar of assets deposited daily and 3 points for every dollar lent out daily. The process is simple: to receive Aries airdrops, users need to register on the points page and link their X (Twitter) account, then participate in the protocol for deposits and loans.
Using an invitation code for registration provides a 10% bonus in points. After binding the account and setting it up correctly, the page looks like this:
Since the airdrop is point-based and activating the point system requires linking an X account, it is recommended to use appropriate punctuation as excessive punctuation seems unnecessary.
Amnis Finance
Amnis Finance is a liquidity staking protocol on Aptos where users can exchange APT for an equivalent amount of amAPT (redeemable after 1 month, or at a 1% discount directly on a DEX), and further stake to earn staking rewards similar to wstETH.
Amnis Finance’s retroactive airdrop event is ongoing with participation methods including:
Minting amAPT and staking to get stAPT, accumulating 1 point for every APT
Holding amAPT and stAPT in the wallet to earn points hourly, accumulating 1 point per APT per month
Providing liquidity on Pancake Swap or LiquidSwap with amAPT-APT pair, where amAPT in LP earns 3.5 times the points compared to holding in the wallet (LiquidSwap is recommended, not issued coins, tutorial provided later)
Lending stAPT to Aries Markets or other welcoming protocols, with a 1.2x point multiplier (Aries also offers point incentives for stAPT)
LiquidSwap
LiquidSwap is the first DEX on Aptos. The project has received funding of $10.5 million from prominent investors like Mechanism, Lightspeed, Faction, and the Aptos Foundation. It also supports the Move language and is developed by Lumio, an Ethereum L2, and Aptos ecosystem wallet Pontem’s developer. In other words, interacting with LiquidSwap may also lead to potential project airdrops like Lumio.
LiquidSwap has introduced an airdrop registration page where users need to register before participating in the airdrop event. Apart from an Aptos address, users can also connect EVM and Solana addresses.
The airdrop page emphasizes that trading activities on LiquidSwap will impact the type of airdrop received. The platform has set various trading volume tiers ranging from $1 to $10 million.
After providing liquidity in LiquidSwap’s Pool, users can further stake in the Farm to earn incentives in APT and other tokens, with good returns.
Cellana
Cellana is the largest Ve(3,3) model DEX on Aptos, which has already conducted token airdrops, with further airdrops expected. Users who engaged in DeFi activities in the Aptos ecosystem before February 25th or bridged to Aptos via LayerZero between January 1st and February 25th can check their eligibility for the airdrop on this page.
Cellana’s airdrop is distributed in the form of veCELL NFTs, which cannot be sold immediately and require a two-year unlocking period. However, users can trade them on the NFT secondary market and receive a 40% voting reward annually.
Cellana recently completed the first round of the second phase of its airdrop, rewarding liquidity providers. The LP on Cellana itself offers high returns, worth considering.
Multiple Pathways for Maximizing Benefits
Pathway 1:
Mint stAPT and deposit in Aries Markets, borrow APT. Convert approximately half of the APT to amAPT on LiquidSwap and provide amAPT-APT liquidity on LiquidSwap.
Pathway 2:
Deposit zUSDT/zUSDC in Aries Markets, borrow zUSDC/zUSDT. Convert half of the borrowed stablecoin to another stablecoin on LiquidSwap, create a stablecoin pair LP in Cellana.
