StarkWare 🥷

This month on Starknet. 1️⃣ Starknet is entering Phase 4 - After years of improving the infrastructure layer, the focus is now shifting from “better infrastructure” to “what can only be built with this infrastructure.” - To support this new phase, StarkWare also adapted its strategy: more focus, fewer low-signal activities, and a stronger push toward products, adoption, and economic alignment. 2️⃣ Starknet now has the native infrastructure for privacy, and the first use case is ready - The Shinobi upgrade is live on Starknet Mainnet, introducing the protocol-level changes needed to make native privacy possible on Starknet. - The first major use case is STRK20s, bringing privacy to all ERC-20 assets. - Among them: Bitcoin, through strkBTC, a new Bitcoin wrapper from Starknet Foundation and StarkWare. - The vote to validate the strkBTC bridge structure and signers is live and ends on May 7. - The vote to make strkBTC eligible for Bitcoin staking is also live and ends on May 7. 3️⃣ The ecosystem keeps shipping - Privily, the first L3 built on Starknet, is now live in beta, building a privacy-focused neobank. - Private transactions powered by Paymaster and private swaps are already possible thanks to avnu. - Private cross-chain swaps to and from Starknet are live through RocketX. - Ready launched USD Prime, allowing users to access Ethereum yield strategies through their wallet UI without leaving Starknet. - Share Internet raised a seed round led by Greenfield to build better financial infrastructure in Africa. - Extended keeps expanding its TradFi markets, with around 30 markets now live across equities, commodities, ETFs, and forex. - 8 new projects are live on Mainnet: Privily, YieldStark, Nums, Abyss, Midgard, Armored_MMA, Lil Duckies, and GuessMyNFT. 4️⃣ The numbers keep improving - 248 projects submitted an entry for the latest Re{define} Hackathon on Starknet. - Starknet is the top chain in the Ethereum ecosystem for onchain developer activity. - Starkzap crossed 4,000 downloads. - Ready Card users have already spent $50M IRL. - Loot Survivor is the 9th most active app across the entire Ethereum ecosystem. - That same game has already generated 100,000,000 onchain transactions on Starknet. - Vesu keeps seeing usage metrics go up only. Can't stop, won't stop.

This month on Starknet. 1️⃣ Starknet’s privacy arc is moving from thesis to product > In addition to strkBTC, Starknet is now preparing the launch of STRK20s, a new privacy capability that gives any ERC-20 confidential balances and private transfers, with compliance built in from day one > To better understand the architecture and core ideas behind it, you can read the newly released STRK20s Technical Paper > Both strkBTC and STRK20s are expected to launch at the end of April 2️⃣ Starkzap is becoming a complete money toolkit for builders > StarkWare released Starkzap v2, adding five new DeFi modules to the SDK: bridging with best execution, swaps with best execution, DCA, lending and borrowing, and confidential transfers and payments > To showcase its power, we plugged Starknet yield directly into the Jupiter app on Solana > If you want to start experimenting with it, there is currently a $4.5k Starkzap bounty program, split between builders ($3k) and content creators ($1.5k) > More than 1,800 people are already using Starkzap 3️⃣ The Starknet stack keeps improving at full speed > StarkWare introduced recursive circuit proving with S-two, a major optimization that cuts proving latency from around 1 minute to 3 seconds, makes proving possible on a common laptop, and produces smaller, cheaper proofs > For teams interested in going deeper, StarkWare released the S-two whitepaper, offering a formal description of the system along with a soundness and security analysis > Starknet also published its Technical Infrastructure Roadmap for 2026, structured around three pillars: execution, decentralization, and economics 4️⃣ The ecosystem keeps shipping > Extended listed 5 new equities markets, 2 new commodities markets, 1 new forex market, and 2 new crypto markets > ArcX is getting ready to launch a new product built around a Pendle-like mechanism for perp DEXs, and the waitlist is already open > Troves launched YOLO Vault, a new vault using a value-averaging strategy to DCA into Bitcoin, with a similar STRK vault already in preparation > Users can now use Ledger, the leading hardware wallet, on Starknet via Xverse > Paradex launched DIME, its utility token, its first RWA perp market, released the private alpha of its first dated options, and introduced a 0.0075% retail taker fee on spot and perps, ending its previous zero-fee model > 4 new projects are now live on mainnet: Everyday App, Armored MMA, Nums, and Yield Stark 5️⃣ The numbers keep improving > Starknet is already generating around $62M in annual app revenue, and at peak that number reached $146M > Dojo Game Jam VIII closed with 31 submissions, meaning 31 new teams are building games on Starknet > Starknet is now the leading L2 in developer activity > Stablecoin growth on Starknet now places the network among the top 2 fastest-growing chains in the Ethereum ecosystem > Starknet is also now a top 2 rollup by TVL/TVS ratio > EUTBL is up 60% over the past month alone on Starknet > More than 1M fully onchain Beast battles have taken place in Savage Summit > More than $40M in real-world payments have already been processed by Ready through its card product Can't stop, won't stop.

Ethereum L2s are not quantum safe, abandon all hope

This GPT Image 2 prompt is going insanely viral right now. “Redraw the attached image in the most clumsy, scribbly, and utterly pathetic way possible. Use a white background, and make it look like it was drawn in MS Paint with a mouse. It should be vaguely similar but also not really, kind of matching but also off in a confusing, awkward way, with that low-quality pixel-by-pixel feel that really emphasizes how ridiculously bad it is. Actually, you know what, whatever, just draw it however you want.”

Help us shape Starknet’s future. Applications are open for new governance delegates, with 1.7B STRK voting power being distributed via the Starknet Foundation. If you’re active in the community and want a voice in protocol decisions, apply below.

Today we're rolling out the new Cashtags feature for web on X․com. Now X can be a core part of your trading terminal with real-time charts and posts for every asset.