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StarkWare cuts jobs in reorganization as Starknet revenue plunges 99% from peak

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StarkWare cuts jobs in reorganization as Starknet revenue plunges 99% from peak

StarkWare is restructuring into two business units and cutting staff as it pivots from scaling Ethereum toward building revenue-generating products of its own — a shift forced by a more than 99% collapse in revenue on its flagship Starknet network.

The changes were outlined during a company-wide town hall hosted by CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, where he told employees StarkWare would restructure into two independent units and focus on building revenue-generating products in-house. A transcript of the address to staff was reviewed by CoinDesk.

Starknet chain revenue, which peaked near $6 million in a single month in late 2023, stood at roughly $48,000 through the first half of April 2026, according to DefiLlama data. The decline is partly industry-wide, with Starknet’s competitors equally impacted, as Ethereum’s EIP-4844 upgrade in March 2024 slashed Layer 2 fee revenue across the board.

Total Value Locked (TVL), however, remains above $200 million.

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Ben-Sasson told employees the company now needs to “take our technological superiority… and convert it into meaningful revenue, meaningful usage,” signaling a shift away from a pure infrastructure focus toward building products that can drive demand directly.

He added that StarkWare would prioritize building “things that can be done by no other team, in no other way,” focusing resources on products with “immense potential revenue” rather than broad experimentation.

“I started in this field in 2013, almost 13 years ago, and I’ve seen quite a number of winters,” Ben-Sasson said at the town hall. “I think what marks this winter is that there’s a very clear vacuum in leadership across blockchain, and it affects even things like Bitcoin and Ethereum.”

The company will spin up a new revenue-focused Applications unit led by researcher Avihu Levy.

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Levy’s promotion comes days after he published a paper outlining Quantum Safe Bitcoin, or QSB, a method for making bitcoin transactions resistant to quantum attacks without requiring changes to the protocol.

The approach replaces traditional signature schemes with hash-based proofs but comes with significant tradeoffs, requiring extensive off-chain computation and costing an estimated $75 to $200 per transaction, versus roughly $0.33 for a standard bitcoin payment.

QSB offers an alternative to BIP-360, a long-pending proposal to add quantum resistance to Bitcoin at the protocol level that was merged to Bitcoin’s improvement proposal repository in February but could take years to activate.

Ben-Sasson did not name Bitcoin or quantum safety as the Applications unit’s target, saying only that StarkWare would focus on products “that cannot be done by any of our competitors” and build with “minimal dependencies on external L1s or external application teams.”

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More details, he told staff, would come next week.

A spokesperson for StarkWare declined a request to comment.

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Crypto World

Senator Tillis eyes “crypto-palooza” to break stalemate over stablecoin yield regulations

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CLARITY Act Stablecoin Yield Compromise Language

A bipartisan effort to bridge the divide between Wall Street and the digital asset industry could see a breakthrough as early as this week.

Summary

  • Senator Thom Tillis plans to release a draft agreement this week aimed at resolving the dispute between banks and crypto firms over stablecoin interest payments.
  • The proposed language for the Clarity Act seeks to settle whether digital asset companies can offer rewards on idle balances after banks voiced concerns regarding deposit drains.

Politico reports that Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is preparing to unveil a draft agreement aimed at settling the fierce debate over stablecoin yields. 

Working alongside Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tillis has been refining language for the Clarity Act, a piece of legislation intended to set a regulatory framework for the crypto sector. 

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The primary sticking point remains whether digital asset firms should be permitted to pay interest on idle stablecoin balances, a practice banks claim threatens their deposit base.

“I think the language has come together well,” Tillis stated on Monday, noting that a public release depends on the continued success of ongoing discussions.

Banking representatives have already expressed concerns regarding the latest proposal from the two senators. Traditional lenders argue that high-yield stablecoin products could pull liquidity out of the banking system, creating instability. 

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Conversely, crypto platforms like Coinbase argue that a ban on rewards would hinder growth and ignore the potential for banks to participate in these new markets. 

While the GENIUS Act, passed last year, prohibited stablecoin issuers from paying interest directly, it left a loophole for third-party exchanges to offer yields, which the Clarity Act now seeks to address.

The White House has attempted to mediate the standoff through several private meetings since January, yet both sides have remained firm in their views. 

Senator Tillis has suggested hosting a “crypto-palooza” on Capitol Hill, bringing both factions together in a public forum to force a resolution. 

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Even if a compromise is reached, the bill faces a steep climb through the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees before it can reach the floor for a final vote.

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Crypto World

StarkWare Cuts Jobs, Restructures Around Revenue Push

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StarkWare Cuts Jobs, Restructures Around Revenue Push

Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare is cutting jobs and restructuring its operations as it shifts from infrastructure development toward revenue-generating products. 

CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said in internal remarks that the firm will split into two business units and cut headcount to move faster and operate more efficiently, with one unit focused on applications and the other on Starknet development.

Ben-Sasson said the company would adopt a “startup mode” mindset, prioritizing fewer initiatives with higher revenue potential, while warning that downsizing would affect employees across the organization. StarkWare did not disclose how many employees would be affected by the cuts.

The move reflects a wider retrenchment across crypto firms, which have been trimming headcount and narrowing priorities as they chase clearer product-market fit, stronger monetization and leaner operations. Messari, Algorand Foundation and Crypto.com all announced cuts in March.

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Source: Eli Ben-Sasson

StarkWare says technical edge must translate into revenue

Ben-Sasson said StarkWare’s next phase would center on turning its technology into “meaningful revenue” and “meaningful usage,” arguing that the company could no longer rely mainly on external blockchains or third-party teams to prove the value of its stack.

Ben-Sasson said the company would focus on “fewer things excellently” and prioritize products with revenue potential that can be built only on its technological stack. 

Related: Decentralized email platform Dmail to cease services on May 15

“We’re going to achieve this by innovating across not just infrastructure, as we’ve done so far, but across the whole stack of infrastructure and product,” he said. 

Crypto layoffs continue as firms tighten strategy

StarkWare’s cuts follow other recent layoffs across the crypto sector as firms narrow priorities and reshape operations. On March 17, Messari announced layoffs alongside a leadership change as the company moved deeper into artificial intelligence-powered research and data tools for institutions. 

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On March 19, the Algorand Foundation said it would cut 25% of its employees, citing macro uncertainty and the broader crypto downturn. The organization said the move was aimed at better aligning resources with its long-term business, technology and ecosystem priorities.

On the same day, Crypto.com also announced a 12% reduction of its workforce as part of a broader push into AI. The exchange said the layoffs were tied to company-wide AI integration and a decision to prioritize resources around key growth areas.

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