What is Starknet (STRK)?
Starknet is an Ethereum layer-2 network developed by StarkWare, whose alpha went live on Ethereum mainnet in November 2021. STRK is its native token: ten billion were minted on-chain on 30 November 2022, and they pay for fees, secure the network through staking and carry votes on protocol upgrades.
- Type
- Ethereum layer-2 gas, staking and governance token
- Launched
- 2022
- Consensus
- Validity rollup secured by Ethereum (STARK proofs)
- Max supply
- No fixed cap (10 billion initial supply)
- Swap network
- Starknet
How Starknet works
Starknet is a validity rollup: it batches transactions and proves them with STARK proofs that are verified on Ethereum. Contracts are written in Cairo, and every account is a smart contract. Since the v0.14.0 upgrade in September 2025, several sequencers produce blocks using a consensus protocol, and STRK and BTC stakers attest to blocks as part of a phased move to staking-based consensus.
What STRK is used for
Since v0.14.0, STRK is the only token accepted for Starknet transaction fees. Holders also stake it or delegate it to validators for rewards, and vote directly or through delegates on protocol upgrades.
STRK supply
Ten billion STRK form the initial supply, with investor and early contributor tokens unlocking monthly until March 2027. There is no hard cap: the protocol mints new STRK as staking rewards under a schedule agreed with the community.
Before you swap STRK
Starknet addresses also start with 0x but are longer account addresses, so copy the one from your Starknet wallet; an Ethereum address will not reach it. A new account can receive STRK before it is deployed and gets deployed with its first outgoing transaction, which needs STRK for the fee. STRK also exists on Ethereum and Solana, but here it moves on Starknet.