Recently, Aptos introduced Shelby, a decentralized, read-centric storage project that has been gaining significant attention. The launch of the @shelbyserves project is naturally sparking speculation around the potential $SHELBY token. Decentralized storage is a sector with growing technical demand and real-world utility. Peer projects in this space tend to have relatively high fully diluted valuations. As of June 30, 2025, Filecoin’s FDV is approximately $4.4 billion, and Walrus is around $2 billion. In this context, Shelby’s debut could become more than just a new storage protocol. It has the potential to act as a major catalyst for the entire Aptos ecosystem. A relevant case study can be found in Walrus, a decentralized storage protocol built on Sui, another Move-based blockchain like Aptos. WAL conducted a large-scale airdrop targeting testnet participants and Sui ecosystem contributors. Four percent of the total token supply was distributed through the initial airdrop, which amounted to roughly $80 million based on a $2 billion FDV. The top airdrop recipient received 100,000 WAL, equivalent to about $40,000 as of June 30. Following the event, the Sui ecosystem experienced a significant rise in both transaction volume and active users. Around the time of WAL’s token generation event, the price of SUI rose by approximately 20 percent in just five days. Notably, the highest daily active address count and transaction volume in 2025 also coincided with the WAL event. This example demonstrates that decentralized storage can impact not just protocol-level success but also the broader ecosystem’s activity and asset valuations. On the technical side, Shelby is generating strong expectations. It leverages Clay Code based erasure coding to achieve efficiency comparable to Web2 cloud services and solves data bottlenecks through micropayment channels and a dedicated high speed network. It also enhances data quality through a read based incentive model that rewards users when data is accessed. This has raised expectations that Shelby could support decentralized applications that require high performance data infrastructure, such as AI inference systems, high throughput DeFi protocols, and media streaming platforms. If you’d like to learn more about the technical strengths of Shelby and how it could transform the Aptos ecosystem, please refer to the research linked below.