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Aptos confirmed on October 12 that its Encrypted Mempool is live on mainnet, an opt-in feature that keeps pending transaction details hidden until validators lock in their ordering, Crypto.news reported. The launch landed with the network’s native APT token down 11.5% over 24 hours at $0.7995.
Aptos said the feature was built to shield traders from frontrunning, sandwich attacks and other forms of maximal extractable value, or MEV. Cointelegraph, which also covered the rollout, reported that the feature is aimed at institutions submitting large transactions, traders looking to avoid MEV risk, AI agents and builders.
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Key facts
- Aptos confirmed the mainnet launch on October 12, 2026, and the feature encrypts transaction contents before they reach the network.
- Encrypted transactions require a minimum gas price of 200 octas per gas unit — twice the base minimum — plus an extra 375 gas units for decryption, per Aptos developer documentation.
- Aptos measured roughly 20 milliseconds of added latency per block in tests involving 50 validators, against a production AptosBFT implementation that normally finalizes blocks in under one second.
- Bitquery identified about 6.9 million sandwich attacks on Solana between October 30, 2025 and October 7, 2026, affecting roughly 2.2 million wallets and extracting $29.7 million before trading costs.
- APT traded at $0.7995, down 11.5% over 24 hours, with a market cap near $697.14 million and volume around $98.91 million, according to CoinGecko data cited by Crypto.news.
How the encryption works
A compatible wallet encrypts transaction instructions on the user’s device before submitting them to Aptos. Details such as the assets involved, transaction amounts and smart contract functions stay hidden while validators agree on ordering. The sender’s wallet address and network fee remain visible throughout.
Once a block is finalized, validators combine their decryption shares to reveal and execute the transactions. Aptos said no individual validator can decrypt a pending transaction alone — the encryption model requires a stake-weighted validator majority, matching the security assumptions of the chain’s existing consensus. The implementation is described in AIP-144, the network’s technical proposal for encrypted transaction processing.
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Unlike systems that lean on external committees or private transaction builders, Aptos uses its existing validator set for both ordering and decryption. Gnosis Chain launched an encrypted mempool using Shutter in July 2024, while Ethereum’s Flashbots Protect routes transactions privately to block builders. Aptos positioned its approach as distinct because its validators handle both jobs.
Costs, tooling and early adopters
The protection carries a higher price tag and a small delay. Beyond the doubled minimum gas price and the 375 extra gas units for decryption, Aptos reported roughly 20 milliseconds of additional latency per block in 50-node tests measured against its production AptosBFT consensus, which typically finalizes blocks in under a second. The encryption system underwent an independent security review by ZKSecurity before launch.
For developers, encrypted transaction support arrived in version 7.0.0 and later of Aptos’ TypeScript SDK. Existing Move smart contracts need no modifications. Petra is the first wallet to offer encryption inside its signing process, and Aptos-based perpetual futures exchange Decibel plans to use encrypted transactions to conceal order details until execution. Alongside Encrypted Mempool, Aptos offers Keyless Accounts for account access and Confidential APT for hiding eligible transfer amounts, both optional.
Why it matters
Bots that watch pending transactions have a structural advantage: they can see what a user is about to do and trade ahead of it. Aptos said in its announcement that bots “use that visibility to trade against you or copy your strategy.” Hiding transaction contents until ordering is final removes that window on Aptos, at least for users who opt in and pay the higher gas price.
The scale of the problem is documented elsewhere. Bitquery’s research on Solana found roughly 96% of identified sandwich attacks involved memecoins traded through Pump.fun-related markets, with daily recorded attacks climbing from about 3,400 in late 2025 to 51,900 in September 2026. Cointelegraph separately reported that sandwich attacks cost Ethereum traders about $60 million over the 12 months through October 2025, citing its analysis of EigenPhi data. That roundup covered Solana transactions and did not establish equivalent losses on Aptos.
Aptos had outlined plans to protect transactions from frontrunning in May 2026, describing the proposed technology and its intended institutional use. The October launch moved that work from development into mainnet operation. In May, the Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs also committed more than $50 million toward ecosystem development covering trading infrastructure, AI agents and blockchain research.
What to watch
Adoption data will be the test. Petra’s encryption option and Decibel’s planned use of private pending orders give the feature its first live venues, and gas-fee revenue from encrypted transactions should show up in on-chain data if usage grows. APT’s move below $0.80 also sits under the 20-day simple moving average of $0.8166 recorded on an earlier chart, though Crypto.news noted a fresh indicator calculation would be needed to confirm the token’s current technical position.
This article is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile and uncertain, and token prices can move sharply in either direction.
Sources: crypto.news, Cointelegraph
