Aptos token rises 11.6% after Microsoft deal to marry AI with blockchain

Aptos (APT), the cryptocurrency powering layer-1 blockchain Aptos Network, is up approximately 11.6% since announcing it will leverage Microsoft’s suite of artificial intelligence tools to advance Web3 adoption among banks and financial enterprises.

This will be achieved by enabling the Aptos Network to tap into Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service to explore innovations in asset tokenization, on-chain payments and central bank digital currencies, Aptos explained in an Aug. 9 statement.

— Aptos Labs (@AptosLabs) August 9, 2023

Mo Shaikh, the CEO of Aptos Labs who previously worked at Meta and BlackRock, signaled high hopes for AI-powered blockchain solutions:

“Artificial Intelligence and blockchain technologies are quickly converging for one important reason: they are both generational breakthroughs that profoundly impact the evolution of the internet and shape society.”

One of the new tools, Aptos Assistant — a ChatGPT-powered chatbot — will aim to help users navigate from Web2 to Web3 by offering virtual guidance with the onboarding process.

Microsoft will also boost the security of the Aptos Network by allowing Aptos Labs to run validator nodes on Azure, according to the cryptocurrency firm.

The news — which was unveiled on Aug. 9, 12:30 pm UTC — immediately pushed APT up 17.6% to $7.92 within the first 50 minutes before cooling off to $7.51 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.

Related: Superblock raises $8M for “Over Protocol,” a new layer 1 blockchain focusing on lightweight full nodes

Despite the price pump, the Aptos token is still down 62.9% from its all-time high price of $19.92 on Jan. 26, 2023, according to CoinGecko.

The Aptos Network launched on Oct. 17 after four years of development. Aptos was founded by former Meta employees Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, who also had a role in Meta’s failed Diem project.

It closed $150 million in funding in July 2022 and $200 million in March 2022 from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures and FTX Ventures.

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