Aptos Token Plummets 40% After APT Airdrop for 'Early Network Participants'

The newly-launched Aptos token (APT) is down 40.5% on its first day of trading, according to data from crypto price aggregator CoinGecko. 

The native token for the so-called "Solana-killer" currently trades at $8.06, after dropping more than a third of its value since the platform captured the first trade at $13.73. 

There are currently big disparities between numbers on different aggregators. CoinGecko competitor CoinMarketCap, for instance, records minor intraday losses so far of 3.5%. 

The reason for the big difference is simple: CoinMarketCap captured the first trade at $8.55, nearly 40% lower than CoinGecko’s starting value. 

Nomics, on the other hand, records a price increase of over 100%. 

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Aptos: A patchy launch

Aptos’s new layer-1 blockchain launched on Monday but was widely panned for its opaque tokenomics, inconsistent communications (the Discord was briefly frozen), and a significantly lower transaction throughput than promised. 

Aptos did eventually release tokenomics for the APT cryptocurrency, but the reveal attracted even more criticism for the high allocation (49%) to developers and private investors, giving rise to quips that the network catered for venture capital. 

Aptos co-founder Mo Shaikh took to Twitter yesterday and explained that the transaction throughput is expected to increase once more applications go live on the blockchain. He also said the team muted the Discord for a few hours on launch day to protect the community against scams. 

Aptos also announced a 20,000,000 APT token airdrop last night, which a little over 110,000 people are eligible to receive. "The Aptos Foundation has provided early network participants with APT tokens. If you are eligible to claim, you will receive an email from airdrop@aptosfoundation.org in the next few hours," tweeted the project.

Participants in the Aptos Incentivized Testnet or those who minted the APTOS:ZERO testnet NFT will get up to 150 APT tokens.

And based on the timing, it looks like at least a few of them dumped their newly-earned tokens on arrival.

Editor's note: This article has been updated on September 19 at 8:30 am ET to reflect that the APT token crash began after the airdrop.