StarkWare Pivots Strategy Amid 99% Revenue Collapse in Starknet Network

StarkWare has announced a significant organizational overhaul and staff reductions as it attempts to recover from a severe decline in network revenue. CEO Eli Ben-Sasson revealed during a company-wide town hall that the firm will split into two independent business units to prioritize the creation of in-house products that can drive direct demand. The restructuring follows a dramatic collapse in Starknet's monthly revenue, which plummeted from a peak of approximately $6 million in late 2023 to roughly $48,000 in the first half of April 2026. This trend is partly attributed to the broader impact of Ethereum's EIP-4844 upgrade in March 2024, which significantly lowered transaction fees for Layer 2 networks across the industry. Ben-Sasson emphasized the need to convert the company's technological advantages into meaningful revenue and usage. The new strategy moves away from broad experimentation and pure infrastructure, focusing instead on high-potential products that competitors cannot easily replicate and that maintain minimal dependencies on external Layer 1s. A newly formed Applications unit will be led by researcher Avihu Levy. While not explicitly confirmed as the sole focus of the unit, Levy recently proposed 'Quantum Safe Bitcoin' (QSB), a method to protect Bitcoin transactions from quantum attacks. However, the QSB approach currently involves high transaction costs, estimated between $75 and $200, compared to roughly $0.33 for standard payments. Despite the revenue crash, Starknet maintains a Total Value Locked (TVL) exceeding $200 million. The pivot signals a broader shift in the blockchain sector as infrastructure providers struggle to monetize scaling solutions in a post-EIP-4844 environment.