Welcome to Move the Mic! Today, we’re featuring Aries Markets, the leading lending and borrowing protocol on Aptos. Built for speed, safety, and scalability, Aries is creating a decentralized money market that empowers both retail and institutional users with Move-based DeFi. Like a mountain goat, they tackle challenges with agility and resilience, aiming to become the main liquidity layer across all Move ecosystems.
Stay tuned and enjoy the interview!
Neşe: Can you tell us about your project and its main objectives within the Aptos ecosystem?
Aries: Aries Markets is the leading lending and borrowing protocol on Aptos, designed to bring capital efficiency and institutional-grade infrastructure to Move-based DeFi. Our core objective is to build a decentralized money market that supports permissionless lending, borrowing, and leveraged trading—serving as the financial backbone of the Aptos ecosystem. With a focus on user experience and composability, we aim to empower both retail users and protocols with accessible, secure, and scalable financial primitives.
Neşe: What’s one thing about your project that you think would surprise people who aren’t familiar with it?
Aries: Many people are surprised to learn how actively we collaborate with market makers and institutional players behind the scenes to bootstrap liquidity and ensure protocol stability. Aries isn’t just a frontend interface—we’re deeply involved in infrastructure-building, supporting native stablecoin yield strategies, and enabling integrations with cross-chain asset flows.
Neşe: Why did you choose Aptos as the blockchain to build on?
Aries: We chose Aptos because of its technical edge—Move’s resource-based programming model gives us greater safety guarantees for asset management, while Aptos’ high throughput and sub-second finality enable a seamless user experience. Beyond tech, the Aptos Foundation has been incredibly supportive, and the ecosystem is rapidly evolving with serious builders and early adopters who align with our long-term vision.
Neşe: If your project were an animal, what would it be and why?
Aries: Aries would be a mountain goat—nimble, resilient, and built for climbing new heights. We operate in a challenging environment (DeFi on a new chain) but continue to push forward with stability, adaptability, and strong footing—especially when others might shy away from steep terrain.
Neşe: What’s the funniest or most unexpected thing that’s happened during your development process?
Aries: During one of our early team calls, someone accidentally shared a screen full of crypto memes instead of the product roadmap. It turned into a 10-minute detour of everyone rating the memes before we got back to work. It reminded us that even in fast-paced DeFi, a good laugh keeps the team energized.
Neşe: What are your future plans?
Aries: We’re focused on building Aries into a one-stop solution for on-chain finance. This includes developing our own DeFi product suite to enrich the user experience. We’re also working toward deeper integrations with DEXs and bridges, enabling seamless asset movement and capital efficiency across chains. Long-term, our goal is to make Aries the liquidity layer not just for Aptos, but for all Move-based ecosystems.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Move the Mic! For more updates and behind-the-scenes content, be sure to follow Aries Markets on their social channels. Stay connected and keep building with Aptos!