Aptos (APT) Skyrockets 11% Higher, Here’s What’s Behind It

“Solana killer” Aptos saw significant gains in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, the APT token was up 8.79% in the last 24 hours. The token is likewise up 8.74% in the past week.

As Bitcoin remains on a sideways move, several altcoins are taking advantage of the situation, recording gains in the last 24 hours. Well-known crypto trader Rager highlighted that Bitcoin is presently in a sideways move and that some altcoins have better setups for trades at the moment.

That said, Aptos (APT) rose alongside a few altcoins such as AAVE and Maker in the last 24 hours and sits in second place among the top gainers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. 

Another key factor that might have resulted in Aptos’ sudden price gains is its dominance among Korean traders, who are known to often push crypto rallies.

Aptos presently ranks among the top 10 traded assets on South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit.

Well-known trader Andrew Kang stated in a June 29 tweet that the “Current BCH disbelief rally reminiscent of the multi-week APT battle between Korean retail and professional traders. Koreans didn’t need a reason to bid, all that mattered is that it kept going up and early bears got slaughtered.”

Kang implied that Korean traders targeted heavily shorted tokens such as Bitcoin Cash and Aptos by executing a short squeeze that resulted in “early bears getting slaughtered.” 

This is seen in the Coinglass data, as the majority of crypto positions liquidated were shorts. In the last 24 hours, nearly $1 million worth of short positions were liquidated, coming in at $997,220, per Coinglass data.

Following months of steady decline, APT resorted to trading below its daily MA 50 at $7.67. A price increase that kicked off on June 29 caused APT to breach this key level for the first time in weeks. Since this date, APT has marked five out of six days in the green.

Traders are watching out for the impact of the token unlock on the APT price in July. Later this month, 4.54 million APT, representing 2.17% of the circulating supply, will be unlocked on July 12.