From Bridge to Breakthrough: How Aptos Achieved 20x ROI in Liquidity with Flipside's Grail Program

In the competitive landscape of Layer 1 blockchains, sustainable liquidity remains a critical challenge. When Aptos sought to expand their ecosystem's capital base, they turned to Flipside's data-driven approach. The results? A 20x return on investment through the Flipside Grail program, transforming a $100,000 budget into nearly $3 million in fresh liquidity.

The Challenge: Efficient Liquidity Acquisition

Blockchain ecosystems often struggle to attract and retain meaningful liquidity without excessive spending. Traditional liquidity mining programs frequently deliver diminishing returns and attract short-term participants. Aptos faced this classic blockchain challenge with the average wallet value at $2 and needed a solution that would:

• Attract high-value participants
• Ensure capital deployment across their ecosystem
• Maintain cost efficiency
• Drive sustainable engagement

Enter Flipside's Grail Program

Grail represents a sophisticated evolution in liquidity acquisition. Through a series of incentivized tasks, Grail activates users to bridge capital into
ecosystems and deploy it in participating protocols. Rather than simply distributing rewards, the carefully engineered game uses proprietary wallet scoring methodology to incentivize the specific behaviors that drive the most long-term ecosystem value.

The goal was ambitious but simple: transform those $2 wallets into active, high-value participants in the Aptos ecosystem.

The stakes? $100,000 in incentives.

The timeline? 3 weeks.

The target? Nothing less than a transformation of user behavior.

The Results: From $2 to $400

Three key metrics tell the story of Aptos's transformation:

1. $3M new liquidity from $100K investment
2. 200x increase in median user value, from $2 to $400
3. Top 1% wallet performance across the ecosystem

1. Exceptional Cost Efficiency

Cost of Liquidity (COL): 3.5%. Every $3.50 spent generated $100 in bridged liquidity, showing significant cost efficiency.

On average, Grail drove 5% of all daily bridged volume into Aptos during the program period, peaking at 18.4% in a single day.

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2. High-Value Participant Acquisition

Grail participants were part of the Top 1% of all wallets by value across all of Aptos

Our data analysis revealed striking differences between Grail participants and typical Aptos users:

Grail Participants:

• Achieved wallet scores of 7-9 (top 1% of all Aptos wallets)
• Median on-chain spend: $400
• Top performers (10+ scores): $1,400+ in activity

Traditional Users:

• Basic wallet scores of 0-3
• Limited transaction activity
• Median on-chain spend: $2

3. Sustainable Impact

Perhaps most significantly, Grail participants demonstrated substantial on-chain activity beyond the initial Grail program:

Users continued transacting after incentives ended

New wallets maintained high activity levels

Bridge volume sustained above pre-program levels

User scores remained in top 1% of ecosystem

Key Takeaways

The success of the Aptos Grail program demonstrates the power of data-driven liquidity acquisition. By focusing on participant quality over quantity and employing sophisticated measurement methodologies, we achieved a cost of liquidity that sets new industry standards. The program's 3.5% cost of liquidity represents a significant breakthrough in capital efficiency—particularly notable in an industry where double-digit percentages are often considered acceptable.

This case study exemplifies Flipside's scientific approach to blockchain growth. Through careful measurement, strategic incentive design, and continuous optimization, we're helping partners like Aptos build sustainable ecosystems where growth knows no bounds.

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