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Starknet H2 2025 Report
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Overview

Starknet is a decentralized ZK-Rollup built on Ethereum, designed to scale Bitcoin and Ethereum's throughput and reduce transaction costs while maintaining security guarantees through STARK proofs. Built with Cairo, a ZK-native programming language, Starknet enables high-performance decentralized applications including DeFi, gaming, and consumer apps. With native account abstraction, Starknet provides Web2-like user experience while maintaining Web3 security guarantees.

H2 2025 marked a transformative period for Starknet as the network achieved major milestones in decentralization, performance, and ecosystem expansion. The half-year witnessed significant achievements including the launch of Grinta (v0.14.0) with decentralized sequencer architecture, S-two prover integration delivering 100x efficiency gains, BTC staking launch making Starknet the first L2 to enable trustless BTC staking, major interoperability integrations (Circle CCTP, LayerZero, Hyperlane, NEAR Intents), and BTCFi ecosystem expansion with 30+ projects and 100M STRK incentives. The network also made significant progress in privacy initiatives including the Starknet proposal for scaling Zcash, and ecosystem growth with 50+ new projects launched.

Key Developments: H2 2025

  • Starknet achieved major protocol upgrades in H2 2025, with Starknet v0.14.0 (Grinta) introducing decentralized sequencing architecture with three sequencers running consensus, marking a major decentralization milestone. The upgrade reduces transaction latency from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds and block times from 30 seconds to 4 seconds, while adding subsecond pre-confirmations, mempool implementation, fee market for l2_gas, and standardized paymaster interface.
  • S-two, StarkWare's next-generation prover, went live on Starknet mainnet, delivering up to 100x efficiency gains over Stone and enabling client-side proving for privacy use cases, decentralized proving, and outperforming other leading ZK VMs by up to 28x. The network achieved stack optimizations that improved throughput dramatically (tailored for perp trades, gaming, etc.) and entered Stage 1 rollup status, with staking progress showing 1.1B STRK and 1,700 BTC staked, and staking metrics showing over 23% of STRK supply staked.
  • Starknet emerged as Bitcoin's DeFi domain, becoming the first dual-staked rollup enabling real, sustainable BTC yield through staking, liquidity, and tokenized yield strategies. The Starknet Foundation launched BTCFi Season with 100M STRK to fuel BTC DeFi, stablecoin borrowing, and ecosystem growth. Three major BTCFi initiatives were announced: BTC staking enabling Bitcoin holders to stake BTC to secure Starknet and earn rewards (first trustless BTC staking on any L2), key contributors including WBTC, Lombard, Solv, Threshold Network, LayerZero, Hyperlane, and Re7 Capital's BTC-denominated yield fund, and the 100M STRK incentives program to bootstrap the BTCFi ecosystem. Starknet x Alpen Labs brought Glock, the most trust-minimized BTC bridge, making Starknet a Bitcoin DeFi execution layer for secure, yield-bearing BTCFi. Bitcoin yield generation became available through five main strategies: staking (5-12% APY), lending (3-8% APY), liquidity provision (5-15% APY), yield vaults (8-15% APY), and Bitcoin-backed borrowing. The BTCFi ecosystem expanded to 30+ projects with an official landing page.
  • Major interoperability improvements transformed Starknet's cross-chain capabilities. Native USDC and Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) launched on Starknet, providing institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure that enables seamless 1:1 cross-chain transfers with 18 other blockchains, removes the need for wrapped tokens, enhances BTCFi liquidity, and provides a migration portal for users to convert USDC.e to native USDC. NEAR Intents integration enables chain-abstracted, intent-based swaps between Starknet and 25+ supported chains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Solana, and others, allowing users to swap over 100 assets into STRK without complex bridging through an API-first approach that allows Starknet dApps to integrate cross-chain swapping directly into their UIs. Hyperlane enabled bridging Solana tokens to Starknet, unlocking new DeFi opportunities, liquidity, and cross-chain interoperability.
  • Privacy and quantum security initiatives gained momentum, with StarkWare funding HRF, and StarkWare and Starknet Foundation funding OpenSats, and OpenCash to strengthen Bitcoin's open-source security and privacy. Long-form conversations explored how privacy, Bitcoin, ZK-STARKs, and post-quantum security converge, covering StarkWare's original vision, Cairo as a ZK-native VM, Bitcoin privacy challenges, BTCFi on Starknet, Ztarknet proposal for scaling Zcash, and the 'Holy Trinity' of Zcash (privacy), Starknet (scalable compute), and NEAR (UX/intents). Starknet uses STARKs and smart wallets to protect Bitcoin from future quantum attacks, with quantum-resistant STARK proofs boosting long-term security as quantum advances threaten Bitcoin's cryptography. Privacy initiatives included Starknet and Zypherpunk hackathon participation.
  • DeFi ecosystem growth accelerated with Extended (formerly X10) launching on Starknet mainnet, offering hyper-performant perpetual trading with more than 50 perpetual markets, up to 100x leverage, and full EVM wallet support, with the migration from StarkEx to Starknet enabling faster settlement, lower costs, direct access to Starknet-native liquidity, and composability with the broader DeFi ecosystem. Extended is building unified margin logic with integrated lending and spot markets, plus Bitcoin-based vault strategies. Ekubo emerged as the AMM endgame with hyper-efficient liquidity, low gas fees, and fair tokenomics, delivering the most advanced and powerful DEX for traders. The Re7 ALMM automated yield optimizer launched for Ekubo pools, enabling users to deposit once and earn sustainably with real-time rebalancing. Focus Tree reached 1M+ users, Extended hit $100M TVL and $1.5B daily volume, and Starknet ranked #2 by net inflows.
  • Developer experience and ecosystem tools improved significantly, with Privy bringing seamless embedded wallets to Starknet, enabling developers to embed wallets directly into their apps and build scalable, user-friendly Web3 experiences with seamless onboarding. Starknet achieved Product-Market Fit by solving crypto's challenges: massive scale, low fees, seamless UX with native Account Abstraction, and an innovative tech stack. The Starknet Foundation Delegation Program supports decentralization by empowering validators through stake matching, fair participation, and network resilience. Due offers cheap, fast global payments with low fees, virtual bank accounts, and instant USDC settlements through Starknet. Itamar discussed DeFi's practical era, Argentina's crypto adoption, stablecoins, and Ready's vision as a crypto-powered neobank.

Ecosystem

Infrastructure

  • Native USDC and Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) launch on Starknet, providing institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure that enables seamless 1:1 cross-chain transfers with 18 other blockchains, removes the need for wrapped tokens, enhances BTCFi liquidity, and provides a migration portal for users to convert USDC.e to native USDC. S-two, StarkWare's next-generation prover, is now live on Starknet mainnet, delivering up to 100x efficiency gains over Stone. The open-source prover enables client-side proving for privacy use cases (private DeFi, zk-ID, verifiable AI), decentralized proving, and outperforms other leading ZK VMs by up to 28x. Built on Circle STARKs and M31 field, S-two makes proof generation feasible on mobile devices and sets the stage for decentralized proving.
  • Starknet v0.14.0 (Grinta) introduces decentralized sequencing architecture with three sequencers running consensus, marking a major decentralization milestone. Key features include subsecond pre-confirmations, mempool implementation, fee market for l2_gas (minimum 3 gFri), and standardized paymaster interface. This upgrade reduces transaction latency from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds and block times from 30 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • The Starknet Foundation Delegation Program supports decentralization by empowering validators through stake matching, fair participation, and network resilience. NEAR Intents integration enables chain-abstracted, intent-based swaps between Starknet and 25+ supported chains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Solana, and others, allowing users to swap over 100 assets into STRK without complex bridging through an API-first approach that allows Starknet dApps to integrate cross-chain swapping directly into their UIs. Hyperlane enabled bridging Solana tokens to Starknet, unlocking new DeFi opportunities, liquidity, and cross-chain interoperability.
  • Privy brings seamless embedded wallets to Starknet, enabling developers to embed wallets directly into their apps and build scalable, user-friendly Web3 experiences with seamless onboarding. Due offers cheap, fast global payments with low fees, virtual bank accounts, and instant USDC settlements through Starknet.
  • Ready has a debit card that has seen a lot of traction lately, with nearly ~$35m spent with the ready card so far.

DeFi

  • Starknet emerged as Bitcoin's DeFi domain, becoming the first dual-staked rollup enabling real, sustainable BTC yield through staking, liquidity, and tokenized yield strategies. The Starknet Foundation launched BTCFi Season with 100M STRK to fuel BTC DeFi, stablecoin borrowing, and ecosystem growth. Bitcoin yield generation became available through five main strategies: staking (5-12% APY), lending (3-8% APY), liquidity provision (5-15% APY), yield vaults (8-15% APY), and Bitcoin-backed borrowing.
  • The BTCFi ecosystem expanded to 30+ projects with an official landing page. DeFi ecosystem growth accelerated with Extended (formerly X10) launching on Starknet mainnet, offering hyper-performant perpetual trading with more than 50 perpetual markets, up to 100x leverage, and full EVM wallet support, with the migration from StarkEx to Starknet enabling faster settlement, lower costs, direct access to Starknet-native liquidity, and composability with the broader DeFi ecosystem. Extended is building unified margin logic with integrated lending and spot markets, plus Bitcoin-based vault strategies.
  • Ekubo emerged as the AMM endgame with hyper-efficient liquidity, low gas fees, and fair tokenomics, delivering the most advanced and powerful DEX for traders. The Re7 ALMM automated yield optimizer launched for Ekubo pools, enabling users to deposit once and earn sustainably with real-time rebalancing. Focus Tree reached 1M+ users, Extended hit $100M TVL and $1.5B daily volume, and Starknet ranked #2 by net inflows.

Privacy & Bitcoin

  • Privacy and quantum security initiatives gained momentum, with StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation funding HRF, OpenSats, and OpenCash to strengthen Bitcoin's open-source security and privacy. Long-form conversations explored how privacy, Bitcoin, ZK-STARKs, and post-quantum security converge, covering StarkWare's original vision, Cairo as a ZK-native VM, Bitcoin privacy challenges, BTCFi on Starknet, Ztarknet proposal for scaling Zcash, and the combination of Zcash, Starknet, and NEAR.
  • Starknet uses STARKs and smart wallets to protect Bitcoin from future quantum attacks, with quantum-resistant STARK proofs boosting long-term security as quantum advances threaten Bitcoin's cryptography.

Developer Community Initiatives

  • The Starknet Foundation has many initiatives like the basecamps, hackathons and Startup house focusing on bringing more developers and founders to the chain.

Onchain Data

Daily Transactions

Starknet demonstrated robust transactional activity throughout H2 2025, with an average of 340,489 daily transactions and peaks reaching 1.18 million. The half-year showed consistent throughput, reflecting strong protocol usage and ecosystem engagement. Notable activity spikes occurred in early August, coinciding with Extended's mainnet launch, and late November, following major interoperability integrations including Native USDC and NEAR Intents. The network maintained strong throughput following the Grinta upgrade deployment in September, which reduced block times from 30 seconds to 4 seconds and transaction latency from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds. The consistent high-volume activity reflects broad protocol usage, growing dApp engagement, and the network's capacity to handle increased demand following infrastructure improvements. This sustained activity aligns with the network's expanding role in Bitcoin DeFi, where protocols leverage Starknet's ZK-rollup capabilities for BTCFi applications and institutional-grade infrastructure.

Daily Active Addresses

Starknet maintained a healthy base of active addresses throughout H2 2025, averaging 48,956 daily active addresses with peaks reaching 99,000. The half-year showed periodic surges in user activity, particularly in early September following the Grinta upgrade, mid-October coinciding with BTCFi Season launch and Native USDC announcements, and late November aligned with major interoperability integrations. These surges reflected sustained engagement across ecosystem initiatives, protocol launches, and growing BTCFi participation. The network's user base demonstrated resilience and growth, with the infrastructure upgrade enabling faster transaction processing and improved user experience. These activity spikes demonstrate growing user engagement across diverse use cases, from DeFi protocols and gaming platforms to BTCFi applications and cross-chain interoperability. The consistent user base reflects Starknet's expanding appeal as a ZK-rollup infrastructure, with integrations from Circle, LayerZero, Hyperlane, and NEAR Intents bringing institutional-grade tools and cross-chain capabilities to the network.

Top Entities by Users and Transactions

Starknet's top entities by users and transactions highlight a diverse and rapidly growing ecosystem anchored by DEXs, gaming platforms, infrastructure, and cross-chain interoperability. AVNU led transaction volume with 27.97 million transactions (52.7% of total), representing 209.6% growth compared to H1 2025, demonstrating the DEX aggregator's central role in Starknet's DeFi activity. Cartridge, the gaming platform, ranked second with 12.71 million transactions (23.9% of total) and 728% growth, reflecting the strong gaming ecosystem on Starknet. Native Starknet infrastructure accounted for 4.07 million transactions (7.7% of total) with 104% growth, while RemusDEX and Ekubo rounded out the top DEXs with significant transaction volumes. On the user side, Ethereum led with 160,592 users (39.4% of total), representing 14.3% growth, highlighting strong cross-chain engagement. Starknet infrastructure followed with 122,112 users (30.0% of total) and 23.9% growth, while USDC, the stablecoin, captured 35,075 users (8.6% of total). The distribution showcases Starknet's strength across DeFi, gaming, infrastructure, and multichain operations, with DEX aggregators and gaming platforms driving the majority of transactional activity while cross-chain protocols and infrastructure support a diverse user base. The significant growth rates across top entities, particularly in DEXs and gaming, underscore the network's expanding utility and adoption following major infrastructure upgrades and ecosystem incentives, positioning Starknet as a preferred platform for scalable, low-cost onchain experiences and Bitcoin DeFi applications.

Closing Thoughts

H2 2025 has reaffirmed Starknet's position as a leading ZK-rollup, achieving major milestones in decentralization, performance, and ecosystem expansion. The network's on-chain metrics tell a compelling story: 53.1 million transactions processed with an average of 340,489 daily transactions, 407,346 unique users engaged across the half-year period, and peak daily activity exceeding 1.18 million transactions. These figures reflect the network's capacity to handle increased demand following the Grinta upgrade, which reduced block times by 87% and transaction latency by 75%, fundamentally improving user experience.

The ecosystem's growth trajectory is evident across multiple dimensions. DEX aggregators like AVNU saw 209.6% transaction growth, gaming platforms like Cartridge experienced 728% growth, and infrastructure improvements enabled 104% growth in native Starknet operations. The launch of BTCFi Season with 100M STRK incentives, combined with major interoperability integrations including Native USDC, Circle CCTP, LayerZero, Hyperlane, and NEAR Intents, has positioned Starknet as a premier destination for Bitcoin DeFi and cross-chain operations. The S-two prover integration, delivering 100x efficiency gains, and the achievement of Stage 1 rollup status further cement Starknet's technical leadership in the ZK-rollup space.

Looking ahead, Starknet's strategic focus on BTCFi, privacy initiatives like Ztarknet, and continued infrastructure improvements through decentralized sequencing and proving create a strong foundation for sustained growth. With 50+ new projects launched in H2 2025, 30+ BTCFi projects, and growing adoption across DeFi, gaming, and infrastructure sectors, Starknet is well-positioned to advance its mission of scaling while maintaining security guarantees through STARK proofs. The network's combination of technical innovation, ecosystem incentives, and strategic partnerships positions it for broader adoption and continued ecosystem expansion in the coming periods.

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Disclosure: The authors of this content and members of Nansen may be participating or invested in some of the protocols or tokens mentioned herein. The foregoing statement acts as a disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and is not a recommendation to purchase or invest in any token or participate in any protocol. Nansen does not recommend any particular course of action in relation to any token or protocol. The content herein is meant purely for educational and informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as financial, investment, legal, tax or any other professional or other advice. None of the content and information herein is presented to induce or to attempt to induce any reader or other person to buy, sell or hold any token or participate in any protocol or enter into, or offer to enter into, any agreement for or with a view to buying or selling any token or participating in any protocol. Statements made herein (including statements of opinion, if any) are wholly generic and not tailored to take into account the personal needs and unique circumstances of any reader or any other person. Readers are strongly urged to exercise caution and have regard to their own personal needs and circumstances before making any decision to buy or sell any token or participate in any protocol. Observations and views expressed herein may be changed by Nansen at any time without notice. Nansen accepts no liability whatsoever for any losses or liabilities arising from the use of or reliance on any of this content.