Welcome to the 25th edition of my monthly recap, where I bring you the most important updates and developments from the Starknet ecosystem!
If you enjoy this newsletter, don’t forget to subscribe. It’s free!
📣 Important news of the month
🔷 Starknet: best Rollup stack in the market, and there’s no second best
This is your monthly reminder that Starknet offers the most advanced Rollup stack out there.
Proof? The proving system powering Starknet is the only one in production that requires no trusted setup and adds no extra trust assumptions.
That makes Starknet the only public Rollup with such guarantees.
Don’t trust, verify.
🔷 Community greenlights both Bitcoin staking and Starknet v0.14.0
In August, StarkWare organized two governance votes on major upgrades: BTC staking and Starknet v0.14.0 (Grinta).
The community approved both, and now they’re rolling out on Mainnet.
Starknet v0.14.0 (Grinta) went live on September 1st, a major milestone introducing:
A decentralized sequencer architecture with 3 sequencers (vs 1 before)
Pre-confirmations: transactions latency drops from 2s → 0.5s
A proper mempool replacing FIFO, with tx prioritized by tips
EIP-1559 style fee market (L1 gas, L2 gas, L1 data gas) + min 3 gFRI
Block time reduced ~7x
And more
Making Starknet faster, more efficient, and on the path to full decentralization.
Bitcoin staking will follow ~end of September, enabling BTC holders to help secure the network alongside STRK:
BTC staking weight = 0.25 (up to 25% consensus power vs 75% for STRK)
WBTC, LBTC, tBTC, and SolvBTC approved at launch
Governance rules set for new BTC wrappers
🔷 STRK delegation continues
Both StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation have delegated more STRK to the community this month.
If you missed the previous rounds, a new StarkWare delegation round is now open. Active validators looking to increase their STRK stake can apply here.
🔷 Builders, your chance to shine
The Starknet Foundation announced a new online hackathon with $30k in prizes. It will run from Sept 15 to Oct 15 and is open to anyone eager to tackle real problems on Starknet. Apply here if you think you’re a fit!
In addition, the next Startup House will take place in Buenos Aires, Nov 12–16. This program is designed for builders who have already shipped at least an MVP and are looking to accelerate. Registrations are now open.
🔷 Men lie, women too, but numbers don’t
Things are improving for real on Starknet:
7x monthly active users since June → yearly ATH
Fastest growing chain in August: #1 in users, #2 in stablecoin growth
DeFi is booming too: Vesu reached a new ATH in borrowed value
📢 Starknet Ecosystem Update
🔷 Ultra-efficient Perps, now live on Starknet
Extended has officially launched on Starknet Mainnet, bringing:
Leverage trading up to 100×, filling a missing piece of Starknet DeFi
50+ pairs, including TradFi assets like Gold, EUR/USD, S&P 500 & Oil
Vaults yielding over 25% APY in USDC
A seasoned team with ex-Revolut executives leading the project
Extended is already among the top 2 apps on Starknet by TVL, bringing over $30M USDC to the network. Definitely a strong start.
🔷 Starknet now connected to 180+ chains
RocketX has integrated Starknet, enabling users to bridge from 180+ chains with minimal slippage, even for large swaps.
How? They leverage CEX liquidity (executing swaps on Bybit/HTX through their own accounts) and then deliver the funds to users on Starknet.
🔷 Moar tokens to trade on Starknet
Layer Akira keeps expanding trading options. In August, they added: SOL, ZRO, BONK, JUP, ARB, FARTCOIN, SHIB, and TRUMP.
You can now trade all these tokens on Layer Akira.
🔷 BTC lending & borrowing, simpler than ever
Ready has integrated Vesu vaults into its wallet, making it seamless to lend BTC and borrow USDC directly from the Ready UI.
Some alpha:
You’re currently paid to borrow against BTC (BTC lending rate > USDC borrowing rate).
You can spend your borrowed USDC in real life with the Ready Card (crypto debit card), no need to sell and cash out anymore.
Just saying ofc.
🔷 Gmail login now available for Starknet gamers
Cartridge has launched Gmail login for the Cartridge Controller, allowing users to create wallets and interact on Starknet with their Gmail accounts.
You can now connect to Cartridge Controller using:
EVM wallets
Discord login
Gmail login
🔹 Alpha Zone 💅
This month, 4 new projects launched on Starknet Mainnet:
Schizodio, a new NFT collection that sold out and is now trading well above mint price
Typhoon Mixer, a privacy-focused mixer for Starknet
Dash, a payments protocol designed to make transactions on Starknet simple
Pay Mesh, another payments protocol
I also spotted 4 new projects currently building on Starknet:
MIST.cash: privacy transfers with full compliance
Stark Mining, a new onchain game
Everyday app, a consumer app to help build better habits
Block Rooms, the first fully onchain FPS game
Glitch Bomb, a retro-arcade strategy
Aqua Stark, a gaming project
📰 Some of the Best Content of the Month
🔹 The complete picture of the Starknet family
This content features the most important creators, builders, and SNF/SW team members. Following them is the best way to stay up to date on Starknet.
🔹 Bitcoin on Starknet; what you can do now, and what’s coming next
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 ⏳
