After the $STRK TGE, Starknet has had a rough ride in Web3, struggling to keep or attract users to its network. But it seems the tides are turning, and Starknet metrics are up on all fronts.
Some said it was over, and some said they were ahead of their time. Which one is it?
Let’s find out!
What is Starknet?
Starknet is an Ethereum Layer 2 network that first launched in November 2021, and later in 2024, the $STRK token entered the markets after a large but controversial airdrop. Since the airdrop, Starknet has suffered with extremely low activity, but despite the many rough challenges, they’ve continued to BUIDL.
What makes Starknet unique amongst the many other L2s is its unique zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptographic proof system known as STARK (Scalable Transparent ARguments of Knowledge). Overall, this is designed to enhance the scalability and privacy of dApps on Starknet.
Why Starknet?
Why Starknet seems to be making a comeback is because of this very technology that is needed in this minefield world of Web3. Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been discussing the importance of ZK technology, hence the current spotlight over the Starknet Layer 2 and others, including ZKsync.
Over the last few months, Starknet has seen an increase in bridge inflows and user activity, ranking it the 21st most active Layer 2 network according to Token Terminal. During its peak, Starknet had an estimated 2.2M monthly users. On average, there are 47.5K monthly users on Starknet, which, in comparison to its peak of 2.2M monthly users, is a big difference that hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Starknet S-two Upgrade
Starknet strives to bring back its millions of loyal users, and the question is, will its new S-two upgrade do exactly that?
S-two is StarkWare’s next-gen prover that will make the Starknet mainnet more scalable, private, and up to 100x cheaper and faster on all transactions!
S-two could potentially be the instrument that fine-tunes the Starknet mainnet into one of the leading Ethereum Layer 2s. As privacy becomes the key component both users and institutions look for, ZK-powered networks such as Starknet may hold a bright future.
Along with the network seeing overall major improvements, the entire Starknet ecosystem of over 250 dApps will also benefit from the new S-two network upgrade. From here, with an upgraded network and a massive ecosystem of native and integrated EVM-compatible dApps, an influx of existing and new users may return once again!
$STRK Token
Spawned via airdrop, $STRK without a doubt has had a red, rough ride. But, when comparing $STRK to other L2 tokens, although it has the general use cases such as governance participation and staking, the best part is its ability to use its own token as a form of payment for transactional fees.
Conclusion
According to CoinMarketCap, at the time of writing, $STRK is trading at $0.1069 with a market cap of $487.65M, ranking it just outside the top 100 cryptocurrencies. Back in February 2024, right after the airdrop, the $STRK token peaked at an estimated ATH of $2.40, marking a huge gap from where it is now. As for the entire crypto market, we’ll also be keeping a close eye on $STRK!
Disclaimer
The content provided in this article is purely informational and nothing said is financial advice. Proceed with caution and always invest what you are prepared to lose. Remember that you are entirely responsible for your assets and investments and the author and the publication do not endorse any of the cryptocurrencies, protocols and/or strategies in this article.
