Layer 1 blockchain Aptos Labs has raised a $150M Series A led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, bringing its total raised in 2022 to $350M
The team is looking to bring the Diem blockchain back to life. — Layer 1 blockchain Aptos Labs, which is made up of former employees …
Context & Ripple Effects
Aptos Labs is stacking rounds at speed: after ex-Meta/Diem engineers raised $200M at a $1B+ valuation from a16z in March, FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto add another $150M, taking the 2022 haul to $350M — all aimed at reviving the abandoned Diem blockchain outside Meta.
First-order effects
- FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto join a16z atop Aptos' cap table, giving the Diem revival two of crypto's most aggressive trading-side backers and fresh runway to relaunch the chain.
Second-order effects
- Jump Crypto keeps concentrating its bets on trading-oriented Layer 1s — it also led Injective's $40M private token sale weeks later — forcing other L1 teams to court the same few deep-pocketed funds to stay competitive on funding headlines.
Third-order effects
- The pattern cuts both ways: by October the Aptos token fell 40.5% on debut amid criticism of opaque tokenomics and low throughput, and Jump Crypto's ties to FTX's collapse later made its portfolio positions a liability — showing how concentrated exchange-and-trading-desk capital amplified both the boom and the bust across Layer 1s.
The trend: Layer 1 fundraising in 2022 consolidated around a handful of exchange- and trading-firm investors like FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, whose later entanglement in the FTX collapse turned that concentration into systemic risk.