- Aptos overtakes Solana’s daily transaction count.
- Tapos Cat game inflates transaction numbers.
- Solana’s transactions are boosted by high bot traffic.
Competition among high-performance chains is heating up. Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain developed by former Facebook employees, apparently surpassed Solana in daily transactions, recording 115.4 million transactions.
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This milestone, however, is under scrutiny as a large part of these transactions were driven by a game called Tapos Cat, where users earn tokens by rapidly clicking on a screen.
Clicker App Boosts Aptos Transaction Volume
On Saturday, May 25, Aptos set a new record with 115.4 million daily transactions, significantly outpacing Solana’s 31.7 million transactions on the same day. This has drawn mixed reactions from the community, as many questioned how organic this traffic was.
Sure enough, one critic appears to have discovered the source of this traffic. The CEO of Solana-based Helius Labs, Mert Mumtaz, revealed that a large part of these transactions come from one single app, Tapos Cat. This Telegram-based mini-app lets users earn crypto tokens by quickly clicking on the screen.
Mumtaz explained that every tap on the app is recorded as a transaction on the Aptos blockchain. Thanks to the app’s large user base and engagement, it quickly brought Aptos’ transaction count far from where they were before. “We will do literally anything to game metrics in this industry rather than build anything with real users or demand,” Mumtaz complained on X.
Aptos defenders retorted that the Tapos Cat app serves a real purpose. By boosting engagement with the network, the app showcases Aptos’ reliability and scale when handling high transaction volumes.
The Rise of Clicker Apps Like Tap Cats
Since Telegram launched its mini-app feature, the number of crypto apps on the platform has sharply increased. Crypto tap-to-earn apps were among the most popular, and the TON-based Notcoin was the first among them.
Since then, other chains have quickly rolled out their own clicker apps, including Solana’s TapSwap. The app was so popular that it pushed the Phantom Wallet app to the third place in the App Store’s utility category.
Crypto projects have found that tap-to-earn apps boost engagement in an industry that has long struggled to attract users. They can then show this increase in engagement to their investors, making a case for their chain. However, critics point out that clicker apps don’t serve a real purpose for the users, calling into question the inflated metrics they reflect.
On the Flipside
- Solana’s high traffic volumes were criticized, as much of the volume comes from high-frequency bot traders. The network’s low fees make it much more attractive to high-frequency traders than Ethereum’s.
- Unlike Aptos, Solana has struggled with maintaining its network reliability due to high traffic. Currently, over 58% of the transactions on Solana are failing.
Why This Matters
High transaction volumes are often used as a key indicator of a blockchain network’s user engagement. However, when these numbers are artificially inflated by activities such as clicker games, they may not reflect genuine user demand or practical utility.
Read more about bots driving traffic on Solana:
Solana Leads Stablecoin Volume: Here’s What’s at Play
Read more about Solana’s potential breakout after the SEC’s decision:
Will Solana Be the Biggest Winner of SEC’s ETF Approval?
