In response to a dramatic drop exceeding 99% in revenue from its leading Starknet network, StarkWare is undergoing significant restructuring and reducing staff numbers as it shifts focus toward developing proprietary, revenue-generating products. This strategic pivot was detailed during a company-wide town hall by CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, who announced the formation of two independent business units dedicated to creating high-potential revenue products internally. The session’s transcript was reviewed by CoinDesk.
In late 2023, Starknet chain revenue reached nearly $6 million monthly, but this plummeted to about $48,000 through April 2026’s first half, as per DefiLlama data. This downturn is partially attributed to industry-wide impacts following Ethereum’s EIP-4844 upgrade in March 2024, which significantly reduced Layer 2 fee revenue across the board. Despite these challenges, Starknet’s Total Value Locked remains above $200 million.
Ben-Sasson emphasized transforming StarkWare’s technological edge into tangible financial gains and heightened usage during the town hall. He underscored a strategic move from infrastructure-centric operations to product-driven initiatives capable of generating direct demand. “I started in this field in 2013, almost 13 years ago, and I’ve seen quite a number of winters,” he remarked. “What marks this winter is the evident leadership vacuum across blockchain, even affecting Bitcoin and Ethereum.”
The company will introduce an Applications unit focusing on revenue, led by researcher Avihu Levy. This comes shortly after Levy published a paper on Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB), aiming to protect bitcoin transactions against quantum threats without altering the existing protocol. His method employs hash-based proofs instead of traditional signatures but involves extensive off-chain calculations and incurs estimated costs between $75 to $200 per transaction, compared to the usual $0.33 for standard payments.
While QSB presents an alternative to BIP-360—another long-standing proposal for integrating quantum resistance into Bitcoin at a protocol level merged in February but potentially years from activation—Ben-Sasson did not specify Bitcoin or quantum safety as focal points for the Applications unit, stating instead that StarkWare would concentrate on unique products with minimal external dependencies.
Further details are expected next week. A StarkWare spokesperson declined to comment on this transition.