Key Insights
- Amnis Finance has 35 million APT staked from 417k stakers (~ $200 million in TVL), making it the largest liquid staking protocol and the third-largest protocol on Aptos by TVL.
- AMI, the governance and rewards token of Amnis Finance, is planned to TGE in March. AMI will empower the Amnis Finance community through its integration with the Amnis DAO.
- Amnis Finance uses a dual-token system (amAPT and stAPT) to provide both liquidity and auto-compounding staking rewards on the Aptos blockchain. This system allows users to participate in the Aptos decentralized finance ecosystem while earning staking rewards.
- Amnis Finance received $2 million in seed funding from investors, led by OKX Ventures and Borderless Capital. This funding may be used for platform improvements, team expansion, and to support the Aptos ecosystem.
Introduction
Amnis Finance is a liquid staking protocol built on Aptos, designed to unlock the full potential of staking by allowing users to earn staking rewards while maintaining liquidity for decentralized finance (DeFi) activities. Traditional staking requires users to lock up their assets, making them inaccessible for other financial activities. Amnis Finance solves this limitation through a dual-token system, enabling users to stake APT tokens, receive liquid staking derivative tokens, and utilize them within the broader Aptos DeFi ecosystem.
The protocol issues amAPT, a liquid derivative that represents staked APT on a 1:1 basis, allowing users to retain flexibility and use their assets in DeFi applications such as lending, borrowing, and liquidity provision. For those seeking yield accumulation, Amnis Finance offers stAPT, a yield-bearing token that auto-compounds staking rewards over time. This structure provides users with the ability to engage in various DeFi strategies while benefiting from staking yields, enhancing capital efficiency within the Aptos network.
Beyond its staking solution, Amnis Finance is a significant player in the Aptos DeFi ecosystem, contributing to liquidity expansion and fostering financial innovation. The protocol integrates with leading DeFi platforms on Aptos, including decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and lending protocols, ensuring seamless interoperability across the ecosystem. Strategic partnerships with key infrastructure providers and major DeFi platforms, such as Aries Markets, Meso Finance, Echelon Market, Cellana Finance, Liquidswap, and PancakeSwap.
Additionally, Amnis Finance actively engages with its user base through incentive programs, referral initiatives, and ecosystem collaborations, further driving adoption and participation.
As Aptos continues to evolve with technological advancements such as the Shardines execution model, which enhances blockchain scalability and transaction throughput, Amnis Finance is well-positioned to capitalize on these improvements. By offering a robust and efficient liquid staking solution, Amnis Finance strengthens the Aptos ecosystem, enabling greater capital mobility, increased DeFi participation, and a more dynamic staking experience for users.
Background
Team
Amnis Finance’s leadership team includes:
- Eric Hung Nguyen, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer: With over a decade of experience in finance, including roles as a trader at Nomura International and Elliott Management Hedge Fund in London, Eric co-founded Amnis Finance to drive innovation in liquid staking solutions.
- Patrick Nguyen, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer: A former software engineer at Google, Patrick holds a BSc in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and leads the technological development at Amnis Finance.
Fundraising
Amnis Finance secured $2 million in a funding round led by Borderless Capital and OKX Ventures, with participation from Aptos Labs, Gate Ventures, and others. This investment accelerates the integration of Amnis Finance’s liquid staking solutions across the Aptos decentralized finance ecosystem, enhances services, and fosters innovation. The funding underscores investor confidence in Amnis Finance’s mission to provide secure, high-yield staking while promoting credit expansion within the Aptos ecosystem.
Amnis Finance Product Suite
amAPT: The Cornerstone of Amnis Finance’s Liquid Staking Strategy
Amnis Finance allows users to participate in network consensus while maintaining liquidity through amAPT, a liquid staking derivative that represents a 1:1 claim on staked APT. Designed as a soft-pegged asset, amAPT mirrors the amount of APT locked within the protocol, ensuring that users can engage with DeFi applications without forfeiting staking rewards. Amnis Finance may implement a reserve system capable of buying back amAPT if necessary to stabilize this peg, mitigating volatility. Additionally, AI-powered algorithms and monitoring alerts help maintain price stability by responding to market conditions in real time.
The minting process for amAPT is seamless—when users stake APT within Amnis Finance, an equal amount of amAPT is issued, tokenizing their staked position. This liquid derivative can then be deployed across the Aptos DeFi ecosystem, enabling participation in various financial strategies. Users can provide liquidity in DEXs such as Cellana, PancakeSwap, and Liquidswap, earning trading fees while enhancing market depth. Additionally, amAPT can serve as collateral in lending protocols like Aries, Meso, and Superposition, allowing users to access borrowed funds while maintaining their staked position.
One of amAPT’s standout features is its ability to bypass the standard 14-day unstaking period associated with APT. Through $30 million in liquidity pools on DEXs, users can instantly swap amAPT back to APT, offering near-instant access to their staked assets. This design enhances capital efficiency, making Amnis Finance an attractive solution for Aptos users looking to maximize the utility of their staked assets while retaining the flexibility of liquid tokens. As of March 2025, the total supply of amAPT is 32.3 million, 81% of which has been staked for stAPT.
stAPT: The Yield-Bearing Token of Amnis Finance
Amnis Finance enhances staking efficiency with stAPT, a yield-bearing token designed to auto-compound staking rewards from the protocol’s APT validators. Unlike amAPT, which functions as a liquid staking derivative, stAPT represents a share in a dedicated staking vault that continuously accrues rewards. This vault structure eliminates the need for manual restaking, offering users a hands-free way to maximize their staking yield while maintaining exposure to APT. As of March 2025, ~81% of all amAPT is staked as stAPT, giving stAPT a total supply of 23.1 million, showing a high demand for the yield-bearing quality of stAPT.
To acquire stAPT, users deposit amAPT into the stAPT vault, where it is converted based on a dynamic exchange rate. As staking rewards are generated, additional amAPT is minted and added to the vault, causing the exchange rate of amAPT per stAPT to increase over time. This mechanism ensures that stAPT holders passively accumulate staking rewards, similar to auto-compounding tokens found in DeFi lending protocols. Users can redeem stAPT for amAPT at any time, maintaining liquidity while benefiting from yield growth.
Beyond staking, stAPT can be leveraged across the Aptos DeFi ecosystem, functioning as collateral in lending markets like Aries, Meso, and Echelon, allowing users to borrow funds while earning staking rewards. Additionally, stAPT can be used in liquidity pools on DEXs such as Cellana, PancakeSwap, and Liquidswap, contributing to market depth and generating additional yield. By offering a seamless, auto-compounding staking experience, stAPT plays a crucial role in Amnis Finance’s dual-token model, catering to users who prioritize long-term staking growth and capital efficiency.
TVL and Growth
AMI Token
Expected to TGE in March, AMI will serve as the governance and rewards token for Amnis Finance. A significant portion of the supply will be airdropped to the community to reward users for staking and early contributions to Amnis Finance.
AMI Tokenomics
The total supply of AMI is capped at 1 billion tokens. The allocation is as follows:
- 20% – Community
- 20% – Team
- 16% – Ecosystem
- 15% – Marketing
- 12% – Seed
- 8% – Airdrop
- 5% – Liquidity
- 3% – Private
- 1% – KOL
At launch, only 15% of the total AMI supply will be circulating, with the majority of that being the 80 million AMI for the airdrop and 50 million AMI allocated for liquidity provision. The airdrop allocation will be fully unlocked at TGE.
AMI Utility
Central to Amnis Finance is the AMI token, which will serve a dual purpose: governing the Amnis DAO and incentivizing the adoption of Amnis Finance’s liquid staking ecosystem. This is intended to foster community ownership and support the growth of the protocol.
Governance through the Amnis DAO
Although not live yet, the AMI token will serve as the governance mechanism for Amnis Finance, empowering the community through its integration with the Amnis Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). As a governance token, AMI will allow holders to propose, vote on, and implement protocol decisions, ensuring that the development and operation of Amnis Finance remain decentralized and community-driven.
Through the Amnis DAO, token holders will be able to influence key aspects of the protocol, including updates to staking mechanisms, liquidity strategies, and ecosystem partnerships. The governance process is conducted onchain, ensuring transparency and accountability in decision-making.
A significant aspect of governance is the DAO’s control over the staking reward fee structure. Amnis Finance currently levies a 7% fee on staking rewards, which is allocated to the DAO Treasury to fund protocol development and ecosystem initiatives. However, this fee is not fixed—it can be adjusted through governance proposals, allowing AMI holders to optimize economic policies as the protocol evolves.
Incentivizing Ecosystem Adoption
Beyond governance, the AMI token serves as an incentive mechanism, driving adoption and participation within the Amnis Liquid Staking Derivative (LSD) ecosystem. By rewarding users for engaging with the protocol, AMI enhances liquidity and encourages broader DeFi integration.
Amnis Finance’s liquid staking model allows users to stake APT and receive amAPT and stAPT, which can then be deployed in various DeFi strategies. To further boost adoption, AMI tokens are distributed as rewards for staking, liquidity provision, and participation in the Aptos DeFi ecosystem. This incentivization model reinforces demand for amAPT and stAPT, ensuring that users remain actively engaged while benefiting from both staking rewards and AMI-based incentives.
Through a combination of governance empowerment and strategic incentivization, the AMI token plays a crucial role in sustaining Amnis Finance’s decentralized structure while accelerating the adoption of its liquid staking ecosystem on Aptos.
Roadmap
Amnis Finance is committed to expanding its ecosystem through strategic partnerships and integrations. Collaborations with decentralized exchanges (DEXs) such as Cellana, PancakeSwap, and LiquidSwap aim to enhance liquidity and offer users more avenues to utilize their amAPT and stAPT tokens effectively.
To further incentivize user engagement and adoption, Amnis Finance has launched initiatives like the Amnis Retroactive Airdrop, distributing up to 50.0 million AMI tokens to participants. This campaign rewards users for activities such as minting amAPT, providing liquidity, and depositing stAPT on partner platforms like Aries.
Overall, Amnis Finance’s future development strategy centers on enhancing user flexibility through innovative financial instruments, fostering ecosystem growth via strategic collaborations, and promoting active community participation through targeted incentive programs.
Closing Summary
Amnis Finance has positioned itself as the leading liquid staking protocol within the Aptos ecosystem, offering users the ability to stake APT while maintaining liquidity for DeFi activities. Through its innovative dual-token model—amAPT for flexible liquidity and stAPT for auto-compounded yield—Amnis Finance enhances capital efficiency and enables broader participation in the DeFi space.
Backed by a strong leadership team and strategic partnerships with key players like Aries Markets, PancakeSwap, and Cellana, the protocol has gained significant traction, becoming the largest liquid staking platform on Aptos. With a peak TVL of $393.5 million and ongoing initiatives to expand its ecosystem, Amnis Finance continues to drive financial innovation and liquidity growth.
The upcoming launch of the AMI token marks a crucial step in decentralizing governance and incentivizing further adoption. Through the Amnis DAO, AMI holders will have a say in protocol decisions, while its incentivization model will ensure sustained engagement in the liquid staking ecosystem. The AMI airdrop and retroactive rewards campaign further reinforce Amnis Finance’s commitment to community-driven growth.
Looking ahead, Amnis Finance remains dedicated to expanding its product offerings with yield tokenization and deeper integrations across DeFi platforms. As Aptos continues to evolve with scalability advancements, Amnis Finance is well-positioned to leverage these improvements, strengthening its role as a key liquidity provider and staking innovator. By prioritizing user flexibility, capital efficiency, and community governance, Amnis Finance is set to remain a cornerstone of the Aptos DeFi ecosystem.
