Exclusive Interview with Aptos Founder Avery Ching: Not Building a General L1, Focusing on Global Trading Engines

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

Interview & Article: Anderson Sima, Editor-in-Chief of Foresight News

By 2025, stablecoins have risen to become a global strategic stronghold. Whether it's the political center of Washington, the financial core of Wall Street, or international hubs like Dubai and Hong Kong, all are striving to compete in this new arena.

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 the blueprint he outlined, over 3 billion users across more than 190 countries covered by Facebook would use a stablecoin called Libra—this means that over a third of the global population would directly step into the world of cryptocurrency.

But Zuckerberg's ideas were too ahead of their time, and the crackdown from regulators caused Libra to be stillborn. However, the legacy of Libra has also brought two important players to the Web3 world - Aptos and Sui.

During the Token 2049 event in Singapore, Foresight News interviewed Aptos founder and CEO Avery Ching. Avery was born in Hawaii and obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Northwestern University. He worked at Meta for over 10 years, during which he was responsible for the technical work on projects such as Libra and Novi under Meta.

After the Libra project could not continue, Avery Ching, along with a group of engineers and colleagues also 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 courteous, just like the “Aloha” spirit contained in his place of origin - Hawaii, a way of life that treats others, nature, and oneself with kindness, respect, and compassion. Below is the edited interview content.

Foresight News: The year 2025 is already halfway through; can we summarize Aptos's progress in the first half of the year with one word?

Avery Ching: If I could only choose one word, I would choose “radical.” In the past, many blockchain networks were general-purpose L1 or L2 networks, and we are the first to attempt goal-oriented initiatives. We have taken a very radical approach in two areas: first, by building a global trading engine through the Decibel project, and second, by promoting 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 advancement.

Unlike other projects in the market, traditional projects usually start with L1 and L2, and then build an ecosystem on top of them. We aim to closely integrate L1 and 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 important advancements 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 a significant increase in DeFi trading volume. Currently, Aptos is one of the top public chains in terms of trading volume, TVL (Total Value Locked), and other liquidity indicators. 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 the widespread adoption of stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, USDE, PYUSD, and more stablecoins will join in the future. (Editorial 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 among the top three in the RWA field, with financial institutions such as Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, and Apollo issuing money market fund products on Aptos. This indicates that Aptos is becoming a global trading engine, with rapid growth in user adoption, capital flow, and asset onboarding.

Foresight News: Recently, DAT has been very popular globally, with companies like MicroStrategy continuously promoting their Bitcoin strategic reserves. Do you think there will be institutions adopting similar strategies to accumulate Aptos tokens? How does Aptos view this trend?

Avery Ching: We are working closely with multiple 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 instills confidence in traditional financial institutions. We have already collaborated with Bitwise to launch ETPs, and progress is being made on ETFs. If Aptos can launch DAT, we believe that with our close connections on Wall Street and in the crypto space, we will achieve success.

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

Avery Ching: I believe this will take time, but we are optimistic about it. 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 very well positioned in connecting TradFi and DeFi, which puts us in a favorable position within the regulatory environment.

Foresight News: In August of this year, you delivered a speech on cryptocurrency at the U.S. Congress. This was a very special experience; what insights did you gain from it?

Avery Ching: It is an honor to be invited to testify at the House Agriculture Committee hearing. We are one of the only four representatives to share insights as builders. We believe that a clear definition of market structure is very important. Currently, many terms remain undefined, and clear rules can inform people on how to launch projects in compliance. The progress of the Genius Act will bring more innovation to the United States and even globally. We are very excited about the rapid actions taken by the executive branch and Congress (the House and Senate) in advancing legislation.

Foresight News: Speaking of policies, the Trump administration has had a significant impact on the cryptocurrency industry. What is your evaluation of Trump again?

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 Clear Act is inseparable from the government's push, including the appointment of David Sacks (White House Advisor on Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency Affairs) and the White House's release of a position paper 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 even 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 cryptocurrency and established key partnerships, such as with Decibel and Shelby. Now we are fully committed to developing code, supporting products, and creating the next generation of trading and cloud computing experiences. For Shelby, we see tremendous interest in AI, creators, and the enterprise sector, with dozens of partners eager to leverage our products. These products are unprecedented in the crypto space, and we are working with our partners to develop the best applications.

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

Avery Ching: There are not many successful cases of Web3 projects, with Polymarket, SushiSwap, Hyperliquid, and Pump.fun being a few rare examples. Aptos adopts a vertically integrated strategy; we believe that simply building products on L1 is not enough, and it is essential to span the entire technology stack. This approach enhances product experience and can drive innovation in other parts of the ecosystem. For instance, we have reduced the block time from an 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 presents greater opportunities for success in the Aptos ecosystem.

Foresight News: Decentralized exchanges (DEX) have become very popular in recent years. What is your view on the future of DEX?

Avery Ching: DEX is an amazing product, such as Perp, which allows users to gain leveraged exposure without the need to have the underlying assets on-chain or on exchanges. The advantage of DEX is the ability to bring assets to market faster and reach a broader international audience, whereas centralized exchanges are limited by regulations. We believe that global trading engines are the trend of the future, and traffic will gradually shift to on-chain. Hyperliquid is a great starting point, but in the future, there will not be a single DEX dominating the market. We see that centralized exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and OKX are very successful, and there will also be 10 to 20 successful exchanges in the DEX space, 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 generic L1, but as a home for global traders, focusing on a global trading engine. We optimize the underlying technology, chains, and code to provide the best trading and decentralized cloud computing experience. This is our core differentiating advantage.

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

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

Foresight News: Will AI become the gateway 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 sector, AI can be used to build smart portfolios, such as achieving dynamic rebalancing through Decibel. AI agents may in the future represent users in trading, payment, and other operations, connecting the crypto world and the traditional internet. As long as the use cases are clear, AI has great potential in the crypto space.

Foresight News: Stablecoins are an important component of the cryptocurrency field. What are your thoughts on their future?

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

For example, today, I find it very difficult to convert my dollars into euros. I have to go somewhere, according to 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 get 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. Firstly, it serves as the payment token for Gas fees on the Aptos network, and after the transaction is completed, these Gas fees are completely burned. At the same time, it also protects the network's staking rights. Therefore, stakers will receive APT rewards for protecting the network from attacks. Additionally, it is also 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 being built on Aptos. We are very excited about our own projects through Decibel and Shelby, but we will also see many new projects that will leverage Aptos's unique capabilities. What we have also heard is that enterprises want to deploy at scale. They have 100,000 and 5 million real users, but in the blockchain world, very few networks can truly support this, whether it's a scalability issue, latency issue, or cost issue. Aptos is the only network that meets all three of these criteria, and we are very excited to collaborate with those traditional large companies, and that 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 like to choose Elon Musk. He is an outstanding innovator, and the technological achievements of Tesla, X, and SpaceX are astonishing. It would be very exciting to discuss developing the next generation of AI or blockchain products using Aptos's scalable technology with him.