ChainTech Africa

June 23, 2025

Aptos (APT) surged over 6% in 24 hours on Wednesday, outpacing many of its layer-1 peers as the broader cryptocurrency market staged a relief rally. The move came amid a noticeable uptick in spot and derivatives trading volumes, signaling renewed investor interest in the high-throughput blockchain platform.

APT climbed from around $9.88 to $10.48, reversing earlier-week losses and reclaiming key technical levels that traders view as short-term support. The price bounce was accompanied by a 35% spike in 24-hour trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap, with much of the activity concentrated on Binance and South Korea’s Upbit exchange.

Macro Recovery Lifts Risk Assets

The broader crypto market saw a modest recovery Wednesday, with Bitcoin bouncing back above $104,000 and Ethereum reclaiming $5,600, following a brief but intense liquidation cascade earlier in the week that wiped out over $450 million in leveraged positions.

The rebound was fueled by improved investor sentiment following dovish comments from the European Central Bank, as well as softening U.S. macro data that reignited hopes for a Federal Reserve rate cut later this year. Risk-on appetite returned across both crypto and traditional markets, providing tailwinds for altcoins like Aptos.

“APT tends to move with the higher-beta crowd, but today’s volume surge hints at something more than just a macro bounce,” said Leo Tran, a crypto analyst at Spartan Research. “It’s likely that whale accumulation or internal network catalysts are contributing to the strength.”

Aptos: Building Momentum Through Development

Behind the scenes, Aptos Labs continues to push updates aimed at enhancing scalability and ecosystem growth. The team recently teased upcoming improvements to the Move programming language—the protocol’s core development tool—and new initiatives targeting gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.

These developments have helped APT remain relevant amid fierce competition from Solana, Sui, and other next-gen blockchains vying for developer mindshare.

According to on-chain analytics platform Artemis, active developers and unique wallets interacting with Aptos dApps have increased steadily over the past three weeks, indicating growing engagement even in a turbulent market.

Technical Levels and Market Outlook

From a technical perspective, APT has broken above its 50-day moving average and is now testing a critical resistance zone near $10.60. A clean break above that could open the door to retesting May highs near $11.50.

Still, analysts caution that overall market volatility remains elevated, and gains could reverse quickly if macro sentiment turns or if Bitcoin fails to hold its recovery.

“APT looks strong in the short term, but we need to see continued follow-through, especially if Bitcoin faces more resistance near $105K,” said Amira Khoury, a senior trader at FalconX.