StarkWare Pivots Strategy Amid 99% Revenue Collapse in Starknet Network

StarkWare, a prominent developer in the zero-knowledge rollup space, has announced a significant organizational restructuring and staff reductions. CEO Eli Ben-Sasson revealed during a company-wide town hall that the firm will split into two independent business units to pivot away from its primary focus on scaling Ethereum. The reorganization is driven by a severe decline in revenue for the flagship Starknet network. According to DefiLlama data, monthly revenue peaked near $6 million in late 2023 but plummeted to roughly $48,000 during the first half of April 2026. This trend is partly attributed to the March 2024 EIP-4844 upgrade, which lowered transaction fees across the Layer 2 ecosystem. Ben-Sasson emphasized the need to convert the company's technological advantages into meaningful revenue and usage. The company intends to prioritize high-potential products that offer unique capabilities not replicable by competitors, reducing reliance on external Layer 1 blockchains and application teams. A new Applications unit will be led by researcher Avihu Levy. Levy recently proposed 'Quantum Safe Bitcoin' (QSB), a method to protect Bitcoin transactions from quantum attacks using hash-based proofs. While QSB offers an alternative to protocol-level changes, it involves higher transaction costs, estimated between $75 and $200 per transaction. Despite the revenue crash, Starknet's Total Value Locked (TVL) remains above $200 million. The pivot reflects a broader 'winter' in the blockchain sector, characterized by a perceived leadership vacuum and a shift toward sustainable monetization over pure infrastructure growth.