STRK

Starknet

Layer 2

A ZK-rollup on Ethereum pivoting to privacy and Bitcoin DeFi, now polling holders on becoming its own L1.

Speculative pivot v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

Starknet shipped real technology in the last year: a decentralised sequencer, the S-two prover, BTC staking, the STRK20 privacy layer and strkBTC. None of it has produced meaningful fees: protocol revenue is around $1M a year while ~127M STRK a month still unlocks for insiders. The token fell −91% from its November 2025 peak to an August low of $0.0225, then rose about 5x from that low to $0.123 on 12 Oct on talk of a post-quantum Layer 1 move, and has already given back half of that. Treat STRK as a narrative trade on a capable but low-revenue network.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$0.0629
+11.2% 24h · +43% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$476.9M
rank #120 · FDV $639.4M, no max supply
24h volume
$155.7M
32.7% of market cap
From ATH
−99%
ATH $4.41, Feb 2024
2026 YTD
−21%
$0.0793 → $0.0629
Staked
~1.1B STRK
~23% of supply, late 2025

The last 12 months

$0.1$0.2$0.3Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2025-11-20: $0.248$0.248 peak2026-08-19: $0.0225$0.0225 low2026-10-12: $0.123$0.1232026-10-21: $0.0629$0.0631Privacy rally peaks at $0.2482Second major outage32026 roadmap published4STRK20 privacy layer5strkBTC launches6Low at $0.02257L1 move floated8L1 research poll closes9Monthly unlock ~127M STRK10Preconfirmations and staking v3
MarketTechProductAdoptionGovernanceUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 22 Oct 2025 to 21 Oct 2026. Several alternating April 2026 closes look like data errors.

Key events
  1. 1
    20 Nov 25 Privacy rally peaks at $0.248. STRK rides the privacy-coin rotation with Zcash, then falls −91% over nine months.
  2. 2
    Jan 26 Second major outage. Block production halts for over two hours, four months after the Grinta outage.
  3. 3
    05 Mar 26 2026 roadmap published. Targets sub-second preconfirmations, 2–3x throughput and staking v3 and v4.
  4. 4
    21 Apr 26 STRK20 privacy layer. Shielded balances and private transfers for any token arrive with the Shinobi upgrade.
  5. 5
    12 May 26 strkBTC launches. A private, 1:1 BTC-backed wrapper built on STRK20.
  6. 6
    19 Aug 26 Low at $0.0225. Bottom of a nine-month slide; the market cap fell to roughly $0.17B.
  7. 7
    08 Oct 26 L1 move floated. StarkWare says it is considering a post-quantum L1; STRK jumps +150% to $0.123 by 12 Oct.
  8. 8
    22 Oct 26 L1 research poll closes. Non-binding Snapshot poll; a yes only starts research, a real move needs a later vote.
  9. 9
    15 Nov 26 Monthly unlock ~127M STRK. Contributor and investor tranche, about $8M at today's price; continues to Mar 2027.
  10. 10
    Soon Preconfirmations and staking v3. 2026 roadmap items; shipping dates not confirmed.

How a private payment flows through Starknet

User
Shields USDC with STRK20

Wallet moves tokens into an encrypted private balance.

Wallet
Builds and signs a transfer

Native account abstraction; fee paid in STRK.

Sequencers
Order and execute

Decentralised sequencer set, confirms in seconds.

S-two prover
Proves the block

A STARK proof covers thousands of transactions.

Ethereum
Verifies and settles

L1 contract checks the proof; state is final.

Receiver
Gets private balance

Can unshield to a normal balance at any time.

Where STRK comes in: gas is paid in STRK (or ETH), each shielded transfer costs a fixed 4 STRK, and stakers who run validation earn newly minted STRK. Nothing is burned, so fees only support the token if usage grows far above today's levels.

Usage and adoption

USD per year, at today's price (~$0.063)
Protocol revenue
~$1.2M
Staking minting
~$5.9M
Insider unlocks
~$96M

Revenue: ~$0.95M gross in 2026 to date (tokenomics.com), annualised. Minting: total supply grew from 10.0B to 10.18B in ~23 months of staking, ~93M STRK a year. Unlocks: ~127M STRK a month to contributors and investors (2024 schedule), ~1.52B a year. All valued at $0.063; revenue covers about 1% of new float.

  • weak signal
    Protocol revenue
    ~$0.95M

    2026 to date, gross. Ethereum blobs made L2 fees tiny; revenue peaked near $6M in late 2023 (period unclear).

  • medium signal
    Staked
    ~1.1B STRK + ~1,700 BTC

    Late 2025. Real lock-up of supply, but paid for by new STRK.

  • medium signal
    TVL
    ~$0.3–0.6B

    Method-dependent; was ~$1.1B at the late-2025 peak.

  • weak signal
    Transactions
    ~239k / day

    Q2 2026 average (Nansen). Includes bots and incentive farming.

Starknet has the technology and a real staking base, but users pay it almost nothing. Until private payments or BTC DeFi generate fees, new supply from unlocks dwarfs any usage-driven demand.

Project

What it is
A validity (ZK) rollup on Ethereum, live since 2021, using STARK proofs and its own Cairo language. Since 2025 it positions itself as the home for Bitcoin DeFi and private payments.
Team
Built by StarkWare, whose co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson (co-inventor of STARKs) has been CEO since Jan 2024. The Starknet Foundation runs grants, the treasury and governance.
Technology
Decentralised multi-sequencer design (Grinta, Sep 2025), S-two prover (Nov 2025), BTC staking alongside STRK, and the STRK20 privacy framework with shielded balances for any token (2026).
Traction
~239k transactions a day in Q2 2026 (Nansen); TVL ~$0.3–0.6B depending on method; ~1,700 BTC and ~1.1B STRK staked (late 2025). Protocol revenue is small, about $0.95M so far in 2026.
Competitors
Arbitrum, Base and Optimism for general L2 activity; zkSync, Scroll and Linea among ZK rollups; Zcash, Aztec and Railgun for privacy; Babylon and Stacks for Bitcoin DeFi.
Key risks
Two major outages (Sep 2025, Jan 2026); very low fee revenue; heavy monthly insider unlocks; an L1 move would cut the Ethereum link that defines it today.
Roadmap
Non-binding poll on researching a post-quantum L1 closes 22 Oct 2026. The 2026 roadmap targets sub-second preconfirmations, 2–3x throughput and staking v3 (decentralised validation); quantum resistance targeted for 2027.

Token performance

1-year return (22 Oct 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
STRK
-48%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

STRK lagged BTC and ETH over 12 months. It has no 3-year history: it listed on 20 Feb 2024 at roughly $2, so since listing it is down about −97%, while over 3 years BTC is up ~+179% (from ~$29.7k) and ETH ~+53% (from ~$1.6k). Long-run figures are manual; the free CoinGecko API covers 365 days.

Range 2026
$0.0225 low (19 Aug) to $0.123 high (12 Oct), daily closes; now $0.063. Some April closes look like data glitches.
12-month drawdown
−91%, from $0.248 (20 Nov 2025) to $0.0225 (19 Aug 2026)
Liquidity
$156M traded in 24h, ~33% of market cap; rank #120. Very high turnover, typical of a speculative rally.
Flows
+150% in four days (8–12 Oct) on L1 talk, then −49% by 21 Oct; −48% over 1 year vs BTC −22%, ETH −35%
ATH check ATH check passed, narrowly. The $4.41 ATH came on listing day (20 Feb 2024), but price returned to ~$2.67–2.78 in mid-March 2024, within 50% of it. Price is now −98.6% below the ATH.

Tokenomics

Supply
10B STRK at genesis, now 10.18B total and ~7.59B circulating (75%). No hard cap: staking rewards are newly minted.
Inflation
Minting follows M = C/10 × √S (S = % staked, C = 1.6), about 0.8% a year at ~23% staked; supply growth implies ~93M STRK a year. BTC staker rewards are minted on top.
Unlocks
Early contributors and investors unlock ~127M STRK a month through 15 Mar 2027 (2024 schedule). Trackers show further foundation and grant releases until Feb 2031; ~2.6B STRK is not yet circulating.
Utility
Gas fees (alongside ETH), staking for sequencing and validation, governance polls, and a fixed 4 STRK fee per shielded STRK20 transaction.
Concentration
At launch ~49% went to early contributors, investors and StarkWare; the Foundation holds much of the rest for grants and the community.
Sinks
No burn and no buybacks. Staking locks ~23% of supply; fees are small and go to the protocol treasury.

Bull case

The L1 research poll passes and StarkWare delivers a credible post-quantum plan; STRK20 and strkBTC pull in real payment and BTC volume, and staking absorbs the remaining insider unlocks. Price holds above ~$0.05 and retests the $0.123 October high.

Bear case

The L1 story fades as a vague research effort, fees stay near $1M a year, and ~127M STRK a month keeps hitting the market until March 2027. Price gives back the rest of the rally and revisits the $0.0225 August low.

Watch before the next re-run

  • Result of the L1 research poll (closes 22 Oct) and any binding follow-up vote
  • Monthly unlock of ~127M STRK until Mar 2027 and exchange inflows
  • STRK20 shielded volume and strkBTC supply
  • Protocol revenue vs staking minting; $0.05 support and $0.123 high

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

STRK against EUR · USD

24h $2.89M · ±2% depth $518.5k

OKXlisted

STRK against EUR · USDT · USDC · TRY

24h $17.9M · ±2% depth $163.2k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
BinanceSTRK/USDT$22.0M$310.2k
OKXSTRK/USDT$18.2M$174.1k
BybitSTRK/USDT$7.44M$220.7k
CoinbaseSTRK/USD$6.94M$267.8k
GateSTRK/USDT$6.65M$239.6k

Deepest DEX pools

Pool24h vol±2% depth
EkuboCLSTRK/USDC · Starknet$5.95M$60.8k
EkuboCLSTRK/STRKBTC · Starknet$525.2k$38.4k
EkuboCLSTRK/other · Starknet$568.0k$33.4k

Pool size (TVL), fee tier and fee APR are not in yet: they need DefiLlama, which this setup cannot reach so far. CL = concentrated liquidity (higher fees, more impermanent-loss risk).

On-chain share of all STRK volume: 6.6%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

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