Aptos Labs Raises $150M to Revive Diem in FTX Ventures-Led Funding Round

Layer 1 blockchain Aptos Labs, which is made up of former Meta employees, has raised $150 million in a Series A funding round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, according to a press release.

The round included investment from a16z crypto, Multicoin Capital and Circle Ventures among other crypto firms, the company said.

Meta’s crypto arm, Diem, officially shut down its stablecoin project in January amid intense regulatory scrutiny. In February, Aptos Labs announced plans to bring the Diem blockchain back to life with the goal of creating the “safest and most production-ready blockchain in the world.”

Aptos Labs has now raised $350 million this year as it looks to utilize its technology and programming language, Move.

«We’ve known for a while that, due to issues like outages and downtime, current blockchains are not fit for purpose when it comes to mass web3 adoption,» said Mo Shaikh, Aptos co-founder and CEO. «That’s why we’re building a blockchain to be the reliable foundation for web3 that ushers in users from around the world to experience the benefits of decentralization.»

Aptos will use the investment to support the development of the project.

«For blockchain technology to reach the next billion users, we need to prioritize scalability, safety and ease of use. Aptos does exactly this,» said Ramnik Arora, investment partner at FTX Ventures.

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