Welcome to the 24th edition of my monthly recap, where I bring you the most important updates and developments from the Starknet ecosystem!
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📣 Important news of the month
🔷 Grinta is coming this month
Starknet v0.14.0, codename Grinta, is landing on Mainnet on August 18. Already live on Testnet, this upgrade marks a major milestone for decentralization and UX.
It brings six big changes:
Decentralized sequencer architecture: Starting with this version, three sequencers will operate using Tendermint consensus with a 1/2 threshold. It’s the first step toward decentralized sequencing on Starknet.
Side note: Juno is already working on becoming a Starknet sequencer, using Nethermind’s custom Tendermint implementation in Go.Pre-confirmations: A new intermediate transaction status with ~0.5s latency, making most transactions feel near-instant, dropping perceived execution time from ~2 seconds to just 500 milliseconds.
Block times reduced: From 30s to 4-6s. Starknet plans to reduce this even further later this year (notably thanks to Cairo-Native).
Fee market for
l2_gas: Inspired by Ethereum’s EIP-1559, this introduces base fees and tips. In v0.14.0, base fees won’t be burned yet, but that’s coming for sure (no ETA yet).Mempool upgrade: FIFO ordering is gone. Transactions are now prioritized by tip, meaning pay more, get in first.
v3 transactions only: From now on, only v3 transactions are supported, and they exclusively require STRK for gas fees. To pay in other tokens, you’ll need a paymaster like AVNU.
Learn more in the dedicated SNIP and pre-release notes.
Speaking of roadmap, the StarkWare team is already collecting feedback for the next roadmap. Now’s the time to make your voice heard.
🔷 STRK staking heats up
With the recent launch of STRK staking v2, StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation have taken even more active roles in supporting the decentralization of staking on Starknet: both are now launching their own delegation programs!
The goal is to help new validators join the network and support smaller validators in becoming profitable by delegating part of their STRK to external participants.
StarkWare has already completed its first round of delegation, distributing 75M STRK across selected validators. They also launched their own validator, staking 30M STRK on it. Round 2 is open until August 11, so if you want to receive delegation from StarkWare, apply now.
The Starknet Foundation is also live with its own delegation program, offering 1:1 matching up to 5M STRK for eligible validators. Results will be announced by August 31.
Note: You can apply to both programs and potentially receive delegation from each. So don’t be shy, apply to both!
~430M STRK staked. Delegation programs live. Grinta around the corner. Decentralization isn’t coming — it’s happening.
~430M STRK staked. Delegation programs live. Grinta around the corner. Decentralization is definitely happening.
🔷 Web3 UX, finally usable for everyone
Starknet keeps pushing toward a Web2-grade experience without compromise.. Here’s what landed this month:
Starknet Paymaster by AVNU is now live. Fully open-source, audited, and permissionless, it allows anyone to sponsor or abstract user gas fees in under 5 minutes.
Ready Mobile wallet already leverages it to offer a fully gasless UX, so users don’t need to hold or worry about gas tokens at all.
Cavos launched Aegis-v1, a new product that enables projects to offer seamless onboarding through invisible wallets powered by social logins (Apple, Google, etc.), combined with a fully gasfree experience.
Mass adoption can’t happen without a seamless and easy-to-understand UX. Starknet is making sure to deliver it.
🔷 Starknet connects to 140+ chains
Hyperlane has officially integrated Starknet into its interoperability stack, allowing builders to easily deploy custom bridges connecting Starknet to over 140 chains.
Builders are already cooking with it:
Daydreams launched a Solana <> Starknet bridge for the DREAMS token
Forge Yields is building cross-chain yield products on top of it
📢 Starknet Ecosystem Update
🔹 Starknet now accessible on the leading Bitcoin wallet
Xverse now supports Starknet Mainnet on both its browser extension and mobile app. That means Bitcoiners can now access Starknet simply by switching networks in the UI, and manage their assets directly on Starknet.
This is only Phase 1 of their Starknet integration. Next step: integrating the Xverse wallet across Starknet apps, in both DeFi and gaming.
🔹 Real-world BTC use case in El Salvador
StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation went to El Salvador to meet Bitcoin builders tackling real problems on the ground. One key question: How can Starknet help?
One answer among others: a Bitcoin ATM fully powered by Starknet is now live, enabling users to buy BTC directly with cash (bills and coins), keep their funds on Starknet, and enjoy a smoother experience than Lightning. Even better: they can plug into Starknet DeFi from there.
More projects from the El Salvador initiative are expected to join Starknet in the future.
🔹 Paradex steps back to go even further
Paradex is extending its Season 2 XP campaign by up to 6 months, postponing the DIME TGE, and for good reason. They want to ship their full product suite first:
Spot market
Pre-market
Yield-bearing synthetic dollars (XUSD)
The long-awaited Money Badgers campaign
On a side note, LPers can now enter the Gigavault, as the cap has been increased to $50M. The vault has been generating around 18% APR in USDC since launch.
🔹 StarkWare now has skin in the DeFi game
StarkWare has concluded an OTC deal with the DAYDREAMS project, an AI agent framework, acquiring a portion of the DREAMS token supply.
In addition, StarkWare is now providing liquidity on the DREAMS/STRK pair on Ekubo, further supporting the project.
🔹 JediSwap shuts down
JediSwap is officially winding down its project: the frontend is now deprecated. If you still have liquidity, note that you can withdrawn manually from the smart contracts.
🔹 OpenZeppelin Contracts MCP now live on Starknet
On top of Cairo Coder, devs (and even non-devs actually), can now use OpenZeppelin Contracts MCP to build and deploy dApps in just 3 steps:
Prompt an idea
Generate the contracts
Deploy the app
Building on Starknet has never been easier.
🔹 Gaming ecosystem shipping non stop
Starknet keeps dominating onchain gaming, and this month delivered again:
Realms (ex-Eternum) announced Blitz, a new 2-hour high-intensity war mode
A new game launched, built by Starknet Brother x Octo Gaming
Dante Horton, gaming industry vet, joins Grug’s Lair as advisor
Winners of the latest Grug Game Jam (vibe coding hackathon) have been announced
🔹 Alpha Zone 💅
This month, 2 new project launched on Starknet Mainnet:
Caddy Finance, a BTC vault generating yield for Bitcoiners
Bro Jump, a game in partnership with the well-know Starknet Brother memecoin
I also spotted 5 new projects currently building on Starknet:
Brove, a hub making it easy to use BTC across DeFi and social use cases
Panenka FC, a fantasy football game
SharkX Trading, the first fully onchain prop trading firm
Numo, modular BTC vaults
Fortichain, a security-focused infrastructure project
📰 Some of the Best Content of the Month
🔷 Starknet Q2 Recap: Setting the stage for H2 2025
Every month, Starknet ships a ton. But when you zoom out and look at a full quarter, the progress is even wilder. Catch up on everything from Q2; protocol upgrades, decentralization, ecosystem growth, BTCfi, and what’s next.
🔷 Paradex: the better-than-CEX DEX
Why use a centralized exchange when you can have speed, UX, and self-custody all in one? Paradex is Starknet’s native appchain for trading, and it’s already flipping CEX experience. Learn how.
None of the content of this newsletter is financial advice. Always do your own research.
Thank you for reading, and see you at the beginning of August for the next monthly recap ⏳
