In a recent announcement, Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, revealed that the Ethereum-based company is reducing its workforce in an effort to focus on revenue generation. Despite being recognized for creating what Ben-Sasson calls ‘the best infrastructure globally,’ StarkWare now sees streamlining as essential for sustainable progress, as stated in a post on X.
Ben-Sasson noted the need for agility in their new strategy: “Our new direction demands speed, and our current size hinders that. For those who remain, this signifies a substantial shift.” Established eight years ago, StarkWare is known for its Ethereum layer-2 scaling network using zero-knowledge proofs, which has been crucial to securing $287 million over eight funding rounds.
Ben-Sasson shared his thoughts with the team post an All Hands meeting: “StarkWare’s strategy is shifting towards blockchain leadership. We have cemented our place as technology pioneers by building top-tier ZK…” (April 13, 2026).
The company’s workforce will be divided into two units focusing on business development, engineering, product management, and market strategies. Unlike its competitor Optimism, which recently laid off 20 employees to enhance decision-making speed, StarkWare did not specify the extent of its job cuts in the X post.
Decrypthas reached out to StarkWare for further comments. The company has been pivotal in developing infrastructure that enhances Bitcoin’s role in decentralized finance, evidenced by the launch of ‘private Bitcoin’ on Starknet with Zcash-like features this February.
DefiLlama data shows Starknet generated approximately $3,500 in revenue over the past day, while its competitor Base, initiated by Coinbase, accrued about $89,000 in chain revenue. In contrast, Polygon Labs announced a shift towards real-world payments after acquiring two crypto firms for $250 million and cutting 30% of its workforce.
Starknet’s token traded at around $0.03 on Monday, marking a 75% drop over the past year, as per CoinGecko. Ben-Sasson acknowledged that focusing solely on infrastructure was limiting in some respects; now, StarkWare aims to excel in fewer areas and achieve product-market fit through experimentation.
“This is akin to returning to startup mode,” Ben-Sasson commented. “It presents a significant challenge necessitating substantial change and effort.” Earlier this month, Crypto.com announced it was cutting 12% of its staff, affecting about 180 employees—a reduction smaller than Block Inc.’s layoff of 4,000 workers in February.