Ethereum EVM vs Aptos VM

Dominant network effect: $50B+ TVL, 4,000+ active dApps, and standards like ERC-20 and ERC-721. This matters for projects requiring deep liquidity, composability (e.g., DeFi protocols like Aave, Uniswap), and a massive existing user base.

High throughput via Block-STM: Achieves 30,000+ TPS in controlled tests by executing transactions in parallel and resolving conflicts optimistically. This matters for high-frequency applications like order-book DEXs (e.g., Econia) or social apps requiring low-latency updates.

• Established DeFi or NFT projects needing immediate liquidity and users.
• Teams with Solidity expertise wanting to leverage existing tooling (Foundry, OpenZeppelin).
• Applications where ecosystem size outweighs transaction cost concerns.

• High-throughput consumer dApps (gaming, social media, trading).
• Greenfield projects prioritizing transaction speed and cost predictability.
• Teams focused on security-by-design willing to adopt the Move language.

Dominant Ecosystem: $50B+ TVL, 4,000+ active dApps, and the largest developer community. This matters for protocols requiring deep liquidity, composability (e.g., DeFi legos), and a massive existing user base.

Battle-Tested Security: Over $1T in value secured, with a robust, decentralized validator set of ~1M nodes. This is critical for high-value, trust-minimized applications like Lido, MakerDAO, and Uniswap that cannot compromise on security.

High Base-Layer Costs: Average transaction fees range from $2-$50+, with throughput limited to ~15-30 TPS. This is a major constraint for high-frequency, low-value applications like gaming or micro-transactions, pushing them to Layer 2s like Arbitrum and Optimism.

High Throughput: Achieves 10,000-30,000+ TPS in controlled tests using the Block-STM parallel execution engine. This matters for applications with independent transactions, like order-book DEXs (e.g., Econia) or high-volume NFT minting, where speed is paramount.

Move Language Safety: The Move prover and resource-oriented model eliminate entire classes of bugs (e.g., reentrancy, overflow). This reduces audit costs and time-to-market for new protocols like Pontem Network and Thala Labs.

Limited Liquidity & Composability: <$500M TVL and a small fraction of Ethereum's dApp count. This is a significant hurdle for DeFi protocols that rely on deep pools and existing money legos, requiring heavy incentives to bootstrap.

Dominant Network Effect: Over $50B in TVL and 4,000+ active dApps (DeFi Llama). This matters for projects requiring deep liquidity and immediate user access via wallets like MetaMask and frameworks like Hardhat/Foundry.

High Theoretical Throughput: Uses Block-STM for parallel execution, achieving 30k+ TPS in controlled tests vs. Ethereum's ~15-30 TPS. This matters for high-frequency applications like order-book DEXs or gaming.

Volatile & High Fees: Mainnet gas fees can exceed $50 during congestion, and L2 fragmentation adds complexity. This matters for applications targeting mainstream users or requiring predictable, low-cost transactions.

Early-Stage Growth: < $1B TVL and fewer than 200 major dApps. This matters for projects that cannot bootstrap their own liquidity and rely on existing composability with protocols like Lido or Chainlink.