Starknet just rolled out privacy protection for 45 ERC-20 assets through its new STRK20 framework, branded as Shieldnet. The system uses client-side zero-knowledge proofs to convert tokens into encrypted notes, making transaction details invisible to outside observers while still allowing selective disclosure for regulatory compliance.
How Shieldnet actually works The STRK20 framework operates on a note-based ZK system. When users interact with it, their assets are converted into encrypted notes that appear only as metadata on-chain. The sender, receiver, and transfer amounts are all hidden from public view.
This is fundamentally different from crypto mixers like the now-sanctioned Tornado Cash. Rather than pooling funds together to obscure their origins, Shieldnet enables selective lawful disclosure through encrypted viewing keys. Users can share these keys with regulators or auditors when required, revealing only the relevant transaction data while keeping everything else confidential.
The framework supports shielded transactions across DeFi applications, not just simple transfers. Protocols like AVNU and Ekubo are already integrated, meaning users can swap and provide liquidity with privacy features baked into the experience. Supported wallets include Xverse and Ready X.
The rollout timeline The STRK20 framework was first announced in March 2026, followed by a protocol upgrade tagged SHINOBI/v0.14.2 on April 21, 2026, which laid the technical groundwork. The first asset to go live under the framework was strkBTC, launched on May 12, 2026. USDC followed in June, and the full implementation covering 45 assets was completed by June 9, 2026.
Early engagement numbers look respectable for a brand-new privacy system. The privacy pool has processed more than 14,000 deposit transactions, with total value locked reaching approximately $350K shortly after launch.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Starknet lending protocol Vesu has reported that a faulty Pragma price feed triggered the abnormal liquidation of 47 positions holding $3 million in collateral on Sept. 4.
Summary
47 Vesu positions were liquidated across several pools during a two-minute oracle failure. $3 million in collateral was affected before the Pragma price feed corrected itself. Vesu said its contracts worked as programmed and contained no protocol vulnerability. Vesu and other Starknet organizations are trying to recover funds for affected users. Vesu traces $3M liquidation to Pragma price feed Vesu said in a Sept. 5 incident disclosure that the liquidations occurred between 04:08 and 04:10 UTC on Sept. 4 after an upstream price source operated by Pragma supplied incorrect data.
🚨 Update on the 4th September oracle incident
A faulty upstream Pragma price feed caused 47 positions and $3M of collateral to be irregularly liquidated across several Vesu pools between 04:08 and 04:10 UTC
The feed corrected itself within two minutes, and nothing has been…
— Vesu (@vesuxyz) September 4, 2026 During the two-minute incident, the faulty prices reached several Vesu liquidity pools and made 47 borrowing positions appear eligible for liquidation. Automated liquidators then removed approximately $3 million in collateral before the feed returned to the correct value.
According to the protocol, the price source corrected itself within two minutes and has operated normally since then. Vesu did not identify the affected assets or provide a pool-by-pool breakdown in its initial statement.
The company also did not disclose how far the incorrect prices differed from market rates, the amount of debt attached to the liquidated positions, or how much collateral liquidators retained. A technical report covering the incident is expected to provide more information about the affected markets and the sequence of on-chain transactions.
Pragma has since worked with the relevant organizations to deploy a fix addressing the source of the error, Vesu said. Liquidity pool curators suspended affected pools as a precaution, with Vesu expecting them to remove the restrictions after reviewing the fix.
Because Vesu uses isolated and curated lending pools, decisions on reopening individual markets rest with their curators. The initial update did not identify which curators had paused their pools or provide an exact timetable for restoring normal activity.
Vesu says its contracts contained no vulnerability Separating the incident from a smart contract exploit, Vesu said its contracts were “operating as designed” and did not contain a vulnerability. The protocol added that it had no contract patch to deploy because the liquidation engine responded to the prices it received.
In an overcollateralized lending market, a borrower deposits assets worth more than the value of a loan. The protocol uses an external price feed to measure the collateral ratio, and a liquidation may begin when that ratio falls below the pool’s required level.
Vesu attributed the Sept. 4 liquidations to bad inputs rather than faulty execution. Under its account, the contracts received incorrect collateral prices and processed the affected positions according to the rules already written into the protocol.
A July 2026 liquidation risk explainer from crypto.news described price data as the central input used to calculate a DeFi loan’s health factor. The report noted that stale or manipulated data can liquidate a healthy position or prevent an unsafe one from being closed.
Oracle dependence also extends beyond lending markets. An August 2026 report on blockchain oracles explained that smart contracts cannot independently read off-chain market prices, leaving them reliant on outside systems that collect, combine and publish data on-chain.
According to that report, an oracle normally handles data sourcing, aggregation, and on-chain delivery. A failure at any of the three stages can pass an inaccurate value to an otherwise functional smart contract, which may then complete a trade or liquidation based on the faulty input.
Recovery talks involve Starknet organizations Following the incident, Vesu said it began coordinating with Pragma, StarkWare, the Starknet Foundation, and the curators of the affected pools to recover funds collected through the liquidations.
The protocol has not yet explained how the recovery process will operate, how much of the $3 million remains recoverable, or whether liquidators have agreed to return any assets. Its statement also stopped short of announcing a guaranteed reimbursement amount or payment date.
For users with deposits in Vesu’s Earn product, the protocol advised keeping their positions open. Closing an Earn position before the recovery process is complete may remove the user’s eligibility for a refund, according to Vesu.
Borrowers whose positions were liquidated during the two-minute window were asked to open a support ticket through Vesu’s Discord server. The protocol did not specify what records users must submit, though wallet addresses and transaction details can identify affected positions on-chain.
Vesu’s response differs from an automatic reversal because blockchain transactions generally remain final after confirmation. Any restoration would therefore require recovered assets, voluntary returns from liquidators, protocol-controlled funds, or another compensation arrangement agreed upon by the parties. Vesu has not said which route it plans to use.
A comparable oracle-related event occurred on Aave in March 2026, when a stale parameter caused an estimated $26 million to $27 million in unintended wstETH liquidations. An August 2026 review of the incident reported that Aave later examined oracle update rates and fallback systems while using several oracle sources for major collateral types.
Vesu has not announced comparable changes to its oracle structure. Pragma’s root-cause fix was the only technical measure confirmed in the initial disclosure.
US users depend on Vesu’s recovery process For users in the United States, the incident involves a permissionless DeFi product rather than an insured bank account. The SEC’s Investor.gov website states that the FDIC insures deposits at eligible banks but does not protect securities or similar investments against a decline in value.
Vesu did not point to any government-backed protection for affected users. Instead, it directed them to its own support process and said the organizations involved were working to recover the collateral taken during the abnormal liquidations.
The protocol has not disclosed whether it restricts recovery by nationality or residence. Its instructions apply to users whose positions were liquidated during the identified window and to Earn depositors seeking to preserve possible refund eligibility.
At the network level, Vesu forms part of Starknet’s DeFi infrastructure. Starknet identified the lender as one of the protocols supporting its STRK20 privacy rollout in June 2026, alongside decentralized exchanges avnu and Ekubo and staking provider Endur.
Vesu said it will publish a complete technical report after its investigation, while affected borrowers can submit Discord support tickets, and Earn users have been told not to close their positions.
Private credit is one of traditional finance’s least transparent corners. Borrowers don’t want their financing terms public. Lenders don’t want competitors knowing their book. And yet, on a public blockchain, every transaction is readable by anyone with a browser. CREDI thinks it has found a way around that contradiction.
The protocol, built by Credilabs, is bringing short-duration invoice and receivables financing onto Starknet using encrypted transactions that keep borrower identities and deal terms confidential while still allowing anyone to verify that the math checks out.
How the privacy layer actually works The core problem with putting credit markets on a public chain is that transparency, usually a feature, becomes a liability. A supplier borrowing against invoices doesn’t want the world to know who their clients are or what payment terms they’ve negotiated. CREDI’s answer is to use Starknet’s STRK20 framework to encrypt transaction data and maintain confidential balances.
The trick is that confidentiality doesn’t mean unverifiability. Cryptographic proofs let anyone confirm that collateralization ratios hold, that advance rates are correctly applied, and that vault accounting is accurate, without ever seeing the underlying borrower data.
Starknet announced the integration on August 20, 2026, and CREDI is part of the foundation’s inaugural Proof of Privacy cohort, a select group of projects building out the network’s privacy tooling.
The settlement architecture adds another layer of protection against default. Borrower repayments via Visa settlements flow directly into the vault rather than passing through the borrower’s hands first. Removing that intermediary step means borrowers can’t accidentally or deliberately redirect funds before lenders get paid.
The numbers behind the product CREDI isn’t a whitepaper project. Its Ethereum-based operation has been running since May 2024, and the track record so far is notable for an early-stage DeFi credit protocol.
The platform has financed more than 1,710 invoices totaling over $4 million, with an average advance rate of 69.78%. That means lenders are typically fronting roughly 70 cents on every dollar of invoice value, with the remainder acting as a buffer against non-payment. Zero defaults have been recorded across that portfolio.
The realized yield across the financed book sits at 29.3%. The loans themselves are short-dated, with maturities capped at 60 days, so capital turns over quickly and risk doesn’t accumulate over long horizons.
The $CREDI token functions as the yield-bearing instrument. Holders accrue interest daily with automatic reinvestment, and the token can be staked for terms ranging from 3 to 24 months with a fixed annual interest rate of 12% to 18%, backed by the underlying credit portfolios. The minimum entry point for staking is $10,000 USDC, and an OTC secondary market provides an exit route for investors who need liquidity before their term ends.
The addressable market CREDI is pitching into is large. Invoice and receivables financing is a subset of the broader private credit universe, which the protocol pegs at $1.75 trillion globally.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
If you wanted to move Bitcoin onto Starknet today, you’re out of luck. Atomiq, the infrastructure provider powering BTC-to-Starknet swaps, yanked all of its swap routes offline on August 20 after what it described as sophisticated AI-assisted security attacks targeting its operations.
The good news: no user funds were lost. The less good news: one of Starknet’s key Bitcoin on-ramps is now a dead end until a replacement integration goes live, which Starknet says should happen within days.
What happened and why funds are safe Atomiq’s role in the Starknet ecosystem was straightforward but critical. It facilitated zero-slippage swaps between native BTC (including Lightning Network transactions) and Starknet-based assets like strkBTC.
Starknet moved quickly to clarify the damage, or rather the lack of it. The swaps relied on a trustless escrow model secured by Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus. In practical terms, that means the security of user funds didn’t depend on Atomiq staying online. The cryptographic guarantees were baked into the protocol layer, not the application layer.
Users who had swaps in progress aren’t stranded either. Atomiq’s web application remains accessible specifically so people can claim refunds on past transactions. The swap service is dead, but the refund counter is still open.
The replacement plan Starknet confirmed it is actively preparing a new integration to restore Bitcoin bridging capabilities. The timeline is aggressive: days, not weeks or months.
Starknet has positioned itself as a privacy-focused Layer 2 built on zero-knowledge rollup technology, where Bitcoin holders can access DeFi applications with enhanced privacy guarantees. The new integration is expected to include enhancements over the previous Atomiq-powered system, including existing swap services such as zero-slippage Bitcoin transactions and support for the strkBTC token.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Skip to contentHow Starknet Can Upgrade for Quantum Resistance
Two weeks ago, a wallet that no quantum computer could ever break made a transfer on Starknet.
The transfer cost about six cents and settled on the mainnet, in public. You can look it up on the block explorer right now.
The account behind it is experimental and unaudited, built for research rather than production use. Still, real value moved through a signature no quantum computer can forge.
That was possible because a Starknet account sets its own rules for which signatures it will accept. This wallet switched from the elliptic-curve signature the rest of crypto relies on to a quantum-resistant one on its own, with no fork, no coordinated migration, and no new address.
That transaction is a useful place to start if you want to understand how Starknet can be upgraded for quantum-resistance.
The clock is already running
Most people in crypto know the threat in outline. A large enough quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm breaks the elliptic-curve cryptography that guards nearly every wallet in crypto, And the keys that keep your funds yours stop being secret.
What surprises people is that the quantum computer doesn’t have to exist yet for you to be exposed to it. An adversary can record encrypted blockchain data today and sit on it until the hardware catches up. The industry calls this harvest now, decrypt later.
So the useful question is how much work stands between a chain and the day that hardware arrives. Answering it means knowing where the danger actually sits.
Why almost no chain could do what that wallet did
A blockchain has two separate exposures to quantum.
The first is the account layer. That is the signature authorising a transaction from your wallet, and it is the one most people picture when they think about quantum risk.
The second is the verification layer. The cryptography the network uses to prove every transaction and balance is valid, the proof system sitting underneath the whole chain. Most people never think about it, and that is exactly the problem.
A quantum computer threatens both, because most chains use elliptic curves in both places. Fix one and neglect the other, and you are still exposed. A quantum-safe wallet on a chain whose proof system can be forged is a steel lock bolted to a cardboard box.
This is why so few networks actually qualify. Bitcoin and Ethereum secure accounts with elliptic-curve signatures wired straight into the protocol, and most zk-rollups make it worse, because the SNARK proof systems they run on are built on elliptic curves too. Fixing them means rebuilding core cryptography from the inside, and on the account side it also means a coordinated migration where every holder has to move funds to a new address type before a deadline.
Starknet begins somewhere else.
Starknet’s Unfair Advantage Both of Starknet’s advantages come from design choices made years before quantum became a headline.
Start with the verification layer. Starknet is built on STARKs, which prove computation using hash functions rather than elliptic curves. There is no known quantum attack that breaks a hash function. The best one, Grover’s algorithm, only speeds up brute-force guessing, and you cancel it out with a slightly larger hash. The layer that secures all value on Starknet was never quantum-vulnerable in the first place. That property is built into how STARKs work.
Now the account layer, which is where that six-cent transfer from a wallet comes from. On Starknet, every account is a smart contract. No signature scheme is hardwired into the protocol. Each account decides which signatures it accepts, in its own code.
That single design choice changes everything about a quantum migration:
A wallet can verify post-quantum signatures, because verification is just contract logic.No hard fork is required to adopt them.No network-wide migration is forced. Accounts upgrade one at a time, on each owner’s schedule.Accounts can swap their logic in place, keeping the same address and the same funds, so protecting yourself now does not lock you into a standard that may still change.Working code already exists, Falcon-512 is a post-quantum signature scheme on NIST’s standardization track. S2morrow demonstrated a working Falcon-512 account written in Cairo. OpenZeppelin published deployable versions, and built the account behind that mainnet transfer.
Adopting it took no fork and no permission. If something better than Falcon comes along, moving to it will work the same way.
The rest of the roadOn June 30, StarkWare published a roadmap to bring the whole network in line, in three phases.
Phase one secures all new activity. It replaces the last elliptic-curve-dependent hashing in places like state commitments and address derivation, so new transactions and contracts run on post-quantum foundations by default. This phase is already underway.
Phase two brings existing contracts forward, with tooling that lets them adopt quantum-safe storage without breaking their interfaces or forcing painful manual migrations.
Phase three moves in step with Ethereum. Two surfaces are shared with the base layer, the bridge that carries messages and assets between Starknet and Ethereum, and the data availability layer where Starknet posts its data. Both still rely on elliptic-curve cryptography inherited from Ethereum.
What matters is how much is left above that shared dependency. Ethereum’s own long-term roadmap points toward the same hash-based, STARK-friendly cryptography Starknet already runs on, so when Ethereum migrates, Starknet arrives with less remaining work than other major layer 2s.
Starknet: a head start you can usePicture the day a real quantum computer finally arrives. On most chains, your protection is somebody else’s decision, and you wait on a protocol fork and a governance deadline to move your funds to safety. On Starknet, that upgrade was a choice you could already make, on your own timeline, with the address you always used. For institutions treating quantum readiness as a compliance question, the same property means safety on a schedule they control rather than inherit.
Read the full roadmap and follow the progress at quantum.starkware.co.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Here’s a problem that’s only going to get worse: AI agents are increasingly managing money on behalf of humans, and nobody has a great answer for what happens when an agent goes rogue. Chance, a verification harness built for exactly this scenario, is now live on Starknet, where it checks agent-proposed transactions against user intent before execution and manages funds through escrow wallets.
How Chance actually works The verification process follows a three-step pipeline: PROPOSE, VERIFY, SETTLE. An AI agent proposes a transaction, Chance runs the proposal through a separate model that performs intent matching and price checks, and only verified transactions proceed to settlement.
The system offers three integration tiers, each with a different trust assumption. Light mode keeps everything self-custodial, meaning you hold your own keys and Chance simply validates. Full mode adds escrow wallets with an on-chain judge component, creating a 2-of-2 multi-party computation (MPC) setup where neither the agent nor the user can unilaterally move funds. RPC mode operates as a proxy simulation layer, useful for developers who want to test agent behavior before deploying real capital.
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The architecture is designed to work across multiple DeFi venues, including perpetuals and token swaps.
Why Starknet specifically As a Layer 2 network built on STARK proofs, Starknet enables low-cost verifiable computation, which is the core technical requirement for running a verification layer that doesn’t eat into trading profits with gas fees.
STARK proofs allow Chance to anchor verification results on-chain as attestations. Every time the system confirms that a proposed trade matches user intent, that confirmation gets recorded, creating an audit trail that’s both transparent and tamper-resistant.
Chance was part of Starknet’s PROOF accelerator program, specifically Cohort 01, which ran from July through September 2026. The escrow mechanism in Full mode uses a 2-of-2 MPC setup, meaning both parties must sign off before funds move. Neither the AI agent nor the platform can unilaterally access the escrowed assets.
The bigger picture for AI and DeFi With a smart contract, the code does exactly what it’s written to do, for better or worse. With an AI agent, the behavior is probabilistic. It interprets your instructions and makes judgment calls. Chance sits directly in that gap, inserting a verification step between intent and execution. The on-chain attestation component means that if something does go wrong, there’s a verifiable record of what was proposed, what was approved, and what was executed.
No token has been announced for Chance, and the project appears focused on building infrastructure rather than generating speculative interest.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
SuperVega has launched its public beta on Starknet, bringing options trading to the layer-2 network and giving users a way to place directional bets on cryptocurrency prices. The platform allows traders to profit from hitting specific price targets on digital assets, a feature that slots neatly into Starknet’s broader push into derivatives infrastructure.
Starknet already has Carmine Options serving as the primary options trading protocol on the network, offering European-style options on assets like ETH, STRK, and wBTC.
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What SuperVega is building SuperVega’s approach centers on letting users “profit from price targets on cryptocurrencies,” which suggests a structure closer to binary or target-based options rather than the traditional European-style contracts that Carmine already offers.
The platform is currently in public beta. No specific metrics like total value locked, trading volume, or fee structures have been publicly disclosed.
Starknet’s derivatives ambitions On May 12, 2026, the network saw the launch of strkBTC, a privacy-enhanced wrapped Bitcoin asset that leverages Starknet’s growing privacy infrastructure. That launch came alongside broader developments in the STRK20 privacy framework.
Liquid staking features were integrated into the network as recently as July 29, 2026, adding another layer of composability that derivatives protocols can build on top of.
What this means for traders and investors SuperVega is a beta product with no track record, no publicly available audit information, and no performance history.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Getting paid to borrow money sounds like a financial fever dream. Sats Terminal just made it real on Starknet.
The BTC lending platform announced its integration with Starknet on July 22, enabling users to borrow USDC against their Bitcoin collateral through the Vesu lending protocol at a net APR of approximately -2.04% at a 50% loan-to-value ratio. In English: borrowers walk away with more money than they owe in interest, courtesy of STRK token rewards that more than cover the borrowing costs.
How negative interest actually works Negative APRs aren’t magic. They’re subsidized. Starknet has allocated at least 100 million STRK tokens toward its rewards program, and those incentives are what make the economics work for borrowers.
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Here’s the math on a concrete example. A borrower putting up 1 BTC as collateral can expect to earn roughly $1,997 annually from STRK rewards while paying approximately $1,344 in interest. That nets out to about $653 in the borrower’s pocket, just for taking out a loan.
The maximum loan-to-value ratio through Vesu can stretch up to 86%, though the juiciest negative rates come at the more conservative 50% LTV tier.
The integration runs through Vesu, a lending protocol on Starknet that positions itself as capital-efficient. Sats Terminal acts as the front-end interface, connecting Bitcoin holders to USDC liquidity without requiring them to sell their underlying BTC position. The loans are non-custodial, meaning users maintain control of their assets throughout the process.
Sats Terminal’s growing footprint The platform has onboarded over 100,000 unique wallets since its inception. Its backers include yzilabs, Coinbase Ventures, and Draper VC. Tim Draper himself highlighted the platform back in January 2026.
Co-founder Stanislav Havryliuk and his team have been building toward this kind of cross-chain integration. Moving onto Starknet, a ZK-rollup scaling solution originally designed for Ethereum, represents a bet that Bitcoin-native users want access to DeFi infrastructure beyond the Bitcoin network itself.
What this means for investors Negative rates funded by token rewards only work as long as the reward tokens maintain their value and the incentive programs keep running. STRK rewards that generate $1,997 annually today could generate significantly less if the token price drops or if Starknet decides to redirect those 100 million tokens elsewhere.
The 86% maximum LTV deserves attention from a risk perspective. High LTV ratios in volatile markets can lead to cascading liquidations. Conservative borrowers sticking to the 50% tier have meaningful buffer. Those pushing toward the ceiling are betting that Bitcoin’s price won’t move against them fast enough to trigger a margin call.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Skip to contentIn the last few weeks, Starknet made its leap into building a privacy solution that works for the practical crypto world with STRK20. STRK20 is Starknet’s privacy capability: it lets any ERC-20 token exist privately on Starknet through shielding, giving those assets shielded balances and private transfers. That capability has been live on mainnet for a while. Today opens up the next part: the Privacy SDK and Privacy Wallet API, so any builder, wallet, or app can build with that same capability instead of building the infrastructure and flows themselves. This is Push to Private: an open door for builders to build on and contribute to privacy that works for crypto.
Privacy, but make it practicalMost privacy products don’t fail because people don’t want them. They fail because they’re slow, expensive, isolated from real liquidity, hard to integrate, or hard to square with compliance. Starknet isn’t trying to win an argument about privacy as ideology. The goal is privacy that’s usable where onchain activity already happens: inside the assets, wallets, and apps people already use.
The Missing PieceSTRK20 has been live on Starknet mainnet for a while, giving users shielded balances and private transfers through supported wallets. With the open sourcing of the SDK, it’s now open to builders too. The Privacy SDK lets any team build custom integrations and explore new ways to bring privacy features into their own apps. On top of that, wallets like Ready are shipping their own Wallet APIs, so builders can add shielding functionality without building the flow from scratch.
The ToolkitPrivacy SDK: a TypeScript client (Apache 2.0) for wallets and advanced integrators who want to manage viewing keys, proving, and notes directly. It wraps the low-level steps: registering a viewing key, opening channels and per-token subchannels, generating proofs against a configurable proving backend, and submitting them onchain.
Privacy Wallet API (spec v0.10.3): the application-layer route most dapps should use. Through starknet.js, your app asks the user’s privacy-enabled wallet to shield, transfer, unshield, or swap; the wallet handles proving and notes under the hood, so your app never touches a viewing key. Ready extension + starknet.js v10.4.0 are the current start path, with Xverse’s Wallet API rolling out.
Both routes sit on top of the same foundation: STRK20 and the privacy pool that powers it, already live on Starknet mainnet.
How it worksSTRK20 is the capability; the pool is the infrastructure underneath it that actually holds and moves shielded balances.
The pool: not a mixer. Shielding deposits an ERC-20 into the pool, where the balance is held as an encrypted note (a UTXO). Private transfers spend existing notes and create new ones. Every private transaction carries a zero-knowledge STARK proof, verified onchain, confirming the notes are real, unspent, and that value is conserved, without revealing sender, receiver, or amount. Deposit and withdrawal amounts, and the fact that someone is interacting with the pool, stay visible; what happens inside it doesn’t.
Two ways in for builders: go direct with the SDK if you’re a wallet or advanced integrator who wants to own proving and note management. Go through the Wallet API if you’re building a normal dapp. You never touch viewing keys, notes, or proofs; the user’s wallet does that work.
For DeFi flows: anonymizer contracts do the work: app-specific contracts the pool calls atomically through a single entrypoint. The pool withdraws, your contract does its thing (swap, lend, or similar), and the result is credited back as private notes, all in one transaction. If any step reverts, the whole thing rolls back and funds return to the pool.
Want to run your own proving? Teams that need control over proving infrastructure can self-host using the open-source Prover Crate instead of relying on hosted proving. As a rough sense of cost: engineering benchmarks from a 12-core / 46 GiB machine generated proofs in roughly 29 seconds on a default build, faster with CPU-specific optimizations. Treat this as machine-dependent infrastructure data, not a laptop or phone number.
Coming next: private sub-accounts, which will let apps run everyday transactions (borrowing, staking, swapping) through accounts with no public onchain link back to a user’s main wallet. Not live yet; wallet and SDK support are still landing.
What’s possible with STRK20By integrating STRK20 in your app flows, you can allow your users to participate in Starknet’s existing privacy ecosystem.
Anonymous DeFi from day one: private swaps run against Starknet’s existing liquidity instead of a separate, isolated pool. No cold-start liquidity problem, no unshield-swap-reshield dance.Multi-call, one transaction: unshield, swap, borrow, repay, and reshield can all happen inside a single private transaction.No new wallet to install: STRK20 works through your existing signing key via Starknet’s native account abstraction, rather than asking users to adopt a separate privacy wallet.Confidential by default, disclosable when required: viewing keys give scoped, per-user visibility instead of an all-or-nothing choice between fully public and fully hidden.Built for speed: Starknet is targeting sub-5-second finality and sub-$0.20 transactions at scale.What builders can do with itConcrete, available now:
Let users shield and unshield supported assetsAdd private transfers to your appRoute private swaps through existing AMM liquidityStart building private lending and staking flows: anonymizer helpers are already in progress for protocols like Vesu and EkuboWhich route to use depends on who you are: wallets, DeFi protocols, and established teams typically go direct with the SDK plus their own anonymizer contract; most other dapps should start with the Wallet API through starknet.js.
Who else is building alreadyA first wave of ecosystem teams are already building privacy-enabled features on top of the stack:
avnu is Starknet’s trading and routing layer for STRK20 and private asset flows, starting with strkBTC.
Troves is building automated yield and vault strategies with private deposits and positions.
ForgeYields is building non-custodial cross-chain yield vaults on Starknet, and exploring how privacy can unlock institutional-grade allocation, letting depositors earn structured yield without revealing their positions, strategy exposure, or portfolio size on-chain.
Provable Games, the team behind Loot Survivor and other Starknet game infrastructure, is exploring how STRK20’s private token ownership can power private onchain organizations.
DeFa Invoicemate is building a private mainnet on Starknet, aiming to give lenders yield opportunities through TradFi and PayFi strategies, with a one-click toggle to keep wallet address and positions private.
Also building with the stack: Ready and Xverse on the wallet side, Endur (Starknet’s liquid staking layer, supporting private staking flows for shielded tokens like xstrkBTC), Polyhedge, and Ekubo.
And across the wider ecosystem: DashX, ArcX, Privily, Zylith, Vesu, Opus, and Cartridge are all building on or exploring the privacy stack in their own way.
Get BuildingGithub repo hereBuild pathways herePrivacy that works for crypto: built into assets, accessed through wallets, used across apps.
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Starknet Memory Protocol Draft Puts User-Owned AI Data On The Crypto Agenda is a useful reminder that crypto coverage is not only about token prices. Sometimes the more important story is the infrastructure, regulation, security, or product layer sitting underneath the market noise.
The immediate point is straightforward: a Starknet community draft proposes a user-owned memory protocol for AI agents. That gives readers something concrete to work with, rather than another vague sentiment update.
TL;DR A Starknet community draft proposes a user-owned memory protocol for AI agents. The design uses scoped, temporary, auditable access through capability tokens. It reflects a growing push to make AI-agent data control more user-owned. Why This Matters Now The timing matters because Starknet is already part of a wider conversation across the market. Traders want to know whether the development changes liquidity or risk. Builders want to know whether it changes what can be deployed. Compliance teams want to know whether it changes how platforms operate.
In that sense, the story is bigger than one headline. It sits inside the ongoing shift from speculative crypto cycles toward more practical questions: who can use these systems, how safe are they, and whether the underlying incentives actually work.
The best way to read it is with discipline. It is not a guarantee of immediate upside, and it should not be treated as one. But it does add a fresh data point to the way the market is thinking about Starknet.
The Starknet Angle For Starknet, the important part is the specific mechanism. If this is a security issue, the risk sits in dependencies and user protection. If it is a listing or product launch, the question is access and liquidity. If it is a governance or research proposal, the question is whether the idea can survive implementation.
That is where this update becomes useful. It is not just a label attached to a trend. It gives readers a way to understand what might actually change if the development gains traction.
Crypto has a habit of turning every announcement into a broad market claim. This one deserves a narrower read. The value is in seeing how it affects the users, developers, institutions, or traders closest to the issue.
The Risk Side There is also a caution attached. Source material can confirm that a development exists, but it cannot prove that adoption will follow. A proposal still needs support. A product still needs users. A chart still needs confirmation. A compliance tool still needs integration.
That is why the responsible reading is not to oversell the story. The stronger takeaway is that this adds to a pattern. The crypto market is steadily becoming more professional, more technical, and more sensitive to real operational details.
Readers should also watch for follow-up signals. That could mean developer feedback, exchange support, regulatory response, wallet adoption, liquidity data, or simply whether market participants continue reacting after the first headline fades.
What Comes Next The next stage will decide whether this remains a narrow update or becomes part of a larger market theme. In crypto, that difference matters. Plenty of stories look important for a few hours and then disappear. The ones that last usually show up again through usage, liquidity, enforcement, governance, or developer adoption.
For now, this gives the market another piece of information to weigh. It is specific enough to be useful, but still early enough that readers should keep the caveats in view.
That makes it worth covering without pretending it settles anything. The story is a signal, not a final verdict.
This report is based on information from community.starknet.io.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Privacy on a public blockchain has always felt like a contradiction in terms. Every transaction is visible, every wallet balance is readable, and your entire financial history is one block explorer search away from being an open book. Starknet thinks it has a fix.
On June 9, 2026, Starknet launched STRK20, a native privacy framework built into its Ethereum Layer-2 ZK rollup architecture. The system lets users shield any ERC-20 token balance, execute private transfers, and run private swaps, all without spinning up a separate privacy coin or fragmenting liquidity into isolated pools.
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How STRK20 actually works The framework runs on a note-based privacy pool: instead of broadcasting your token balance to the entire network, your assets are converted into encrypted “notes” that only you can open and spend. The proofs themselves are generated client-side using zero-knowledge cryptography, which means your device does the heavy lifting locally before anything touches the chain. On-chain, the network only verifies that a valid proof exists, not what the underlying transaction contains.
The first asset to use STRK20 was strkBTC, which went live on the framework following Starknet’s v0.14.2 protocol upgrade in April 2026. USDC support followed on June 25, 2026, extending privacy capabilities to one of crypto’s most widely used stablecoins. The system is designed so any ERC-20 token on Starknet can plug in without requiring separate liquidity. Supported wallets at launch include Xverse, AVNU, and Circle integrations.
The compliance piece, and why it matters STRK20 includes an encrypted viewing-key mechanism that allows users to selectively disclose transaction history to auditors, regulators, or legal counterparties without making that information public. Encrypted viewing keys can be held by third-party auditors, meaning a court order or compliance request can unlock a specific user’s transaction history without compromising anyone else’s privacy on the network.
What this means for Starknet’s competitive position Starknet’s rollout of STRK20 follows a deliberate build-up that began in March 2026 with initial privacy-related feature introductions, accelerating through the April 2026 full privacy engine implementation, and culminating in the June mainnet launch.
Starknet has signaled that upcoming phases will expand STRK20 into private lending products and cross-chain functionality.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
PANews July 12 news, Token Unlocks data shows that tokens such as DBR, ARB, YZY will see large unlocks next week, including:
deBridge (DBR) will unlock approximately 618 million tokens on July 17 at 8:00 am Beijing time, representing about 11.4% of the circulating supply, worth about $10.1 million;
Arbitrum (ARB) will unlock approximately 92.65 million tokens on July 16 at 9:00 pm Beijing time, representing about 1.65% of the circulating supply, worth about $8.5 million;
YZY (YZY) will unlock approximately 20.83 million tokens on July 17 at 11:00 am Beijing time, representing about 4.1% of the circulating supply, worth about $6.1 million;
Starknet (STRK) will unlock approximately 127 million tokens on July 15 at 8:00 am Beijing time, representing about 3.74% of the circulating supply, worth about $3.9 million;
Sei (SEI) will unlock approximately 55.56 million tokens on July 15 at 8:00 pm Beijing time, representing about 0.91% of the circulating supply, worth about $2.8 million.
Imagine two AI agents walk into a marketplace. One wants to buy cloud compute, the other wants to sell it. They negotiate a price, lock funds in escrow, execute the deal, and, if something goes sideways, resolve the dispute. No humans involved at any step. That’s the pitch behind Internet Court, which officially launched on July 10 with Starknet serving as its payments and settlement backbone.
What Internet Court actually does Internet Court describes itself as an “open skill” for agentic commerce. In English: it’s a standardized toolkit that lets autonomous AI agents handle every phase of a commercial transaction without needing a human to step in and click buttons.
The system is organized across six principal layers. Agent discovery and contract formation rely on ERC standards. Negotiation happens through A2A protocols. Execution uses tools from partners in the ecosystem. And when deals go wrong, adjudication is embedded directly into the smart contracts themselves, with pre-agreed settlement mechanisms kicking in automatically.
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Starknet’s specific role is handling the financial plumbing. Its zero-knowledge execution layer manages payments, escrow, and on-chain settlement. When Agent A pays Agent B, those funds flow through Starknet. When there’s a dispute, the adjudication logic executes on Starknet as well.
The broader stack pulls in several recognizable names. GenLayer and Kleros contribute to the execution and dispute resolution layers respectively. The x402 protocol handles payment authorization. The skill itself is accessible as a skill.md file, available through curl or GitHub, with a live clerk agent already running on Telegram via the project’s website at internetcourt.org.
The partners and the bigger picture The launch consortium includes Heurist, a decentralized AI inference platform, along with Alt AI and io.net, which provides distributed GPU infrastructure.
Internet Court’s thesis is that agents won’t achieve real economic autonomy until these layers are unified. A single composable skill that handles the entire transaction lifecycle is, at least in theory, the missing infrastructure that makes agent-to-agent commerce practical rather than just demonstrable.
What this means for investors The integration of on-chain dispute resolution is perhaps the most underappreciated piece. Internet Court’s approach of embedding adjudication directly into smart contracts, with pre-agreed resolution mechanisms, offers at least a partial answer to the question of what happens when an AI agent makes a bad deal on your behalf.
The skill.md distribution model, essentially making the protocol as easy to integrate as reading a file, lowers the barrier considerably. The Telegram clerk agent is a live proof of concept accessible through internetcourt.org.
Kleros has been working on decentralized arbitration for years. GenLayer is building agent-specific smart contract infrastructure. Internet Court is pulling these projects into a unified stack rather than competing with them.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Starknet is rolling out its v0.14.3 upgrade to mainnet on July 8, bringing a suite of changes designed to make the Layer 2 network cheaper, faster, and harder to break. The headline features: dynamic gas fees that adjust to STRK’s token price, a 30% cut to target gas per block, and a quiet but meaningful shift toward quantum-resistant cryptography.
For a network whose native token is currently trading around $0.03 and whose total value locked sits at roughly $204 million, this is less a victory lap and more a necessary step to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded L2 landscape.
What’s actually changing The most consequential piece of the upgrade is SNIP-35, a proposal that introduces dynamic L2 gas base fee adjustments. Instead of static minimum gas fees, the network will now automatically recalibrate fees based on two variables: the fluctuating price of the STRK token and real-time network congestion.
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The second major change involves block architecture. Starknet v0.14.3 reduces the target L2 gas per block by 30% while keeping the maximum block size unchanged. The result is smaller but more frequent blocks, which translates directly into shorter block production times and reduced transaction latency.
The upgrade also introduces Keccak support for client-side proving and transitions specific operations from Pedersen hashing to BLAKE hashing. The BLAKE switch is explicitly aimed at quantum resistance.
Breaking changes and developer migration Starknet v0.14.3 deprecates RPC v0.8, meaning any developer or application still relying on that version needs to migrate before the switch flips.
StarkWare, the primary development team behind Starknet, has been providing migration guidance ahead of the July 8 date. The testnet activation happened in June, following multiple delays from earlier targets like June 22, giving developers a window to test their applications against the new protocol.
The mainnet migration itself is expected to incur approximately 8 minutes of downtime.
What this means for investors STRK trading at around $0.03 puts it in a challenging position. The dynamic fee adjustment mechanism ties gas fees to STRK’s market price, creating a feedback loop where network revenue remains somewhat stable in dollar terms regardless of token volatility.
Watch the TVL numbers in the two weeks following July 8. If locked value climbs meaningfully from the current $204 million, it suggests the fee and latency improvements are translating into actual user behavior changes.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
PANews, July 1 – According to SoSoValue data, crypto sectors generally fell, with the Layer 2 sector down 3.57% in 24 hours. Among them, Mantle (MNT) fell 4.97%, Starknet (STRK) fell 4.93%, and Celestia (TIA) fell 9.54%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) fell 1.89%, dropping below $59,000; Ethereum (ETH) fell 0.98%, dropping below $1,600.
In other sectors, the PayFi sector fell 0.29% in 24 hours, but Stellar (XLM) rose 11.00%; the CeFi sector fell 0.87%, Binance Coin (BNB) fell 1.19%; the Meme sector fell 1.05%, MemeCore (M) rose against the trend by 22.60%; the Layer 1 sector fell 1.41%, Cardano (ADA) was relatively resilient, rising 1.32%; the DeFi sector fell 2.79%, LAB (LAB) fell 14.83%.
Additionally, the SocialFi and NFT sectors were relatively resilient, rising 0.50% and 0.54% respectively. Within the SocialFi sector, Gram (GRAM) rose 1.01%; within the NFT sector, Audiera (BEAT) rose 7.87%.
Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare has released a quantum-resistant roadmap for Starknet, arguing that other chains will remain exposed if the industry is “too stubborn or stupid” to act.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Starknet framed its three-phased quantum-resistant roadmap as evidence that the crypto industry has no excuse for remaining vulnerable to future quantum computing attacks.
“The tried-and-tested cryptography exists to secure every crypto key in the world, if necessary changes are made, and the only reason anyone will remain vulnerable is if heads remain buried in the sand,” said Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO at StarkWare.
Efforts to quantum-proof blockchains are accelerating as some researchers warn that quantum computing could outpace blockchain’s defenses and cryptographically relevant quantum machines could be ready before 2030.
The Bitcoin community remains divided on how to approach securing old coins against the quantum threat, while other networks are forging ahead with quantum roadmaps.
Ben-Sasson said Starknet can become resistant to quantum attacks by “seizing on its architecture advantage.” Its underlying cryptography is zero-knowledge STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) proofs, which are “inherently post-quantum safe.”
Ben-Sasson said that if Starknet can become quantum-resistant by “seizing on this cryptography,” then anyone else can do it by choosing the right cryptography. “We need to be nimble in blockchain and crypto,” he said.
“There’s an awful irony in the notion that a young industry born from rejecting the way things have always been done is stalling and procrastinating about making changes for quantum security.”He added that crypto has an “elliptical illusion,” distorting reality around elliptic-curve cryptography, the current standard for securing blockchains.
Believing that this will be quantum resistant is “false confidence” that is leaving the industry “dangerously complacent,” he said.
Some migration problems are genuinely hard, involving technical trade-offs, governance decisions, and dependencies that no single team controls, he added, but said: “difficulty is not an excuse for delay.”
“The crypto industry shouldn’t need wake-up calls from the White House or anyone else. We should all be acting and seizing on the best cryptography that exists.”Starknet’s three-phase roadmap The first phase involves swapping out some of its current security math (Pedersen hashing) for quantum-resistant versions and adding quantum-resistant signatures.
Phase two focuses on migration tooling that quietly upgrades existing smart contracts to the new quantum-safe standard, without forcing developers to manually rebuild apps.
Phase three covers dependencies that Starknet cannot resolve alone, which largely depend on Ethereum’s quantum upgrade roadmap.
Circle, Ethereum, Solana, Tezos and Algorand have all proposed quantum-proof roadmaps, while the Bitcoin community remains at loggerheads.
Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare has released a quantum-resistant roadmap for Starknet, arguing that other chains will remain exposed if the industry is “too stubborn or stupid” to act.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Starknet framed its three-phased quantum-resistant roadmap as evidence that the crypto industry has no excuse for remaining vulnerable to future quantum computing attacks.
“The tried-and-tested cryptography exists to secure every crypto key in the world, if necessary changes are made, and the only reason anyone will remain vulnerable is if heads remain buried in the sand,” said Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO at StarkWare.
Efforts to quantum-proof blockchains are accelerating as some researchers warn that quantum computing could outpace blockchain’s defenses and cryptographically relevant quantum machines could be ready before 2030.
The Bitcoin community remains divided on how to approach securing old coins against the quantum threat, while other networks are forging ahead with quantum roadmaps.
Ben-Sasson said Starknet can become resistant to quantum attacks by “seizing on its architecture advantage.” Its underlying cryptography is zero-knowledge STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) proofs, which are “inherently post-quantum safe.”
Ben-Sasson said that if Starknet can become quantum-resistant by “seizing on this cryptography,” then anyone else can do it by choosing the right cryptography. “We need to be nimble in blockchain and crypto,” he said.
“There’s an awful irony in the notion that a young industry born from rejecting the way things have always been done is stalling and procrastinating about making changes for quantum security.”He added that crypto has an “elliptical illusion,” distorting reality around elliptic-curve cryptography, the current standard for securing blockchains.
Believing that this will be quantum resistant is “false confidence” that is leaving the industry “dangerously complacent,” he said.
Some migration problems are genuinely hard, involving technical trade-offs, governance decisions, and dependencies that no single team controls, he added, but said: “difficulty is not an excuse for delay.”
“The crypto industry shouldn’t need wake-up calls from the White House or anyone else. We should all be acting and seizing on the best cryptography that exists.”Starknet’s three-phase roadmap The first phase involves swapping out some of its current security math (Pedersen hashing) for quantum-resistant versions and adding quantum-resistant signatures.
Phase two focuses on migration tooling that quietly upgrades existing smart contracts to the new quantum-safe standard, without forcing developers to manually rebuild apps.
Phase three covers dependencies that Starknet cannot resolve alone, which largely depend on Ethereum’s quantum upgrade roadmap.
Circle, Ethereum, Solana, Tezos and Algorand have all proposed quantum-proof roadmaps, while the Bitcoin community remains at loggerheads.
Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
StarkWare released what it described as crypto’s “strongest” post-quantum roadmap, setting out a three-phase plan to make Starknet quantum-ready by replacing remaining elliptic-curve dependencies and introducing migration tools for existing contracts.
The proposal builds on what StarkWare called Starknet’s “architectural advantage,” with its zero-knowledge STARK proofs relying on hash-based cryptography that the company said is post-quantum secure by design.
StarkWare said the plan could make the network quantum-ready within months, according to a statement shared with The Block on Tuesday.
Per the statement, the first phase of the roadmap would replace Pedersen hashing with BLAKE2 across state commitments, contract addresses, and network configuration, while also introducing post-quantum consensus signatures such as Falcon-512.
The second phase focuses on migration tooling for legacy contracts, while the final phase addresses external dependencies that remain linked to Ethereum, including bridge syscalls and blob data availability, which depend on Ethereum's own post-quantum transition.
"This document says: here is how we'll do it for Starknet. It's our path to making Starknet a safe haven for funds whatever quantum may bring. And the subtext is that if we can do it by seizing on this cryptography, then anyone else can do it by choosing the right cryptography," StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said.
Industry preparedness Ben-Sasson said the cryptographic tools needed to secure digital assets against quantum threats already exist and argued that remaining vulnerabilities would stem from inaction rather than technical limitations.
He added that every crypto key could be protected if the necessary changes are implemented and criticized what he described as industry stubbornness around post-quantum migration.
The executive also coined the term "elliptical illusion" to describe what he called misplaced confidence that blockchains built on elliptic-curve cryptography will remain secure without significant changes as quantum computing advances.
Elliptic-curve systems underpin transaction signatures and ownership verification across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and much of the broader digital infrastructure used today.
The roadmap follows a separate development earlier this year when StarkWare researcher Avihu Mordechai Levy published a proposal for quantum-safe Bitcoin transactions that operates without a soft fork or modification to Bitcoin's underlying protocol.
The approach, referred to as QSB, replaces elliptic-curve assumptions with hash-based constructions including Lamport signatures. Levy reported the method achieves roughly 118-bit second pre-image resistance under a quantum threat model while remaining compatible with Bitcoin's existing script limitations of 201 non-push opcodes and 10,000 bytes.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
Survey: 88% of enterprises plan to adopt stablecoins within the next year, with cross-border payment costs reduced by an average of 35%.
Payment infrastructure company Cybrid has released a new survey report indicating stablecoins are rapidly gaining traction in enterprise payment scenarios. The survey found that 42% of participating enterprises already use stablecoins for cross-border payments, while 88% said they are likely or very likely to adopt stablecoins within the next 12 months—only 2% of firms stated they will continue to rely entirely on traditional payment systems. According to the report, enterprises using stablecoins save an average of 35% on cross-border payment costs, with firms processing over $100 million in monthly payments achieving an average cost reduction of 47%. Payroll and contractor payments represent the most prominent use case, followed by supplier payments, customer payments, investment and revenue management, and treasury management, among others. Additionally, 71% of respondents identified a clear regulatory framework as the primary factor driving further mainstream adoption of stablecoins, outranking considerations such as infrastructure provider credibility and system integration. The survey was conducted from April to May this year, covering 468 senior executives from tech, financial services, and e-commerce sectors in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
3 hours ago
FalconX secures EU MiCA license, allowing it to offer compliant crypto services to institutional clients in Europe.
Institutional digital asset broker FalconX announced it has obtained the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license issued by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), enabling it to provide compliant digital asset trading, custody, liquidity and related institutional services across the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA). FalconX stated that this license allows it to operate across EU member states under a unified regulatory framework, eliminating the need for individual country-specific licenses. Currently, the firm serves over 2,000 institutional clients worldwide, including asset management firms, hedge funds, banks and family offices, with cumulative transaction volumes exceeding $2.5 trillion and over $8 billion in institutional financing disbursed. FalconX noted that as the MiCA regulatory framework is fully implemented, institutional clients’ demand for compliant trading, custody and liquidity services continues to grow, and regulatory credentials are becoming a key competitive advantage in Europe’s digital asset market.
3 hours ago
Guo Wengui sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with a fraud case involving over $1 billion.
A US court has sentenced Miles Guo (also known as Ho Wan Kwok) to 30 years in prison. In 2024, a jury convicted Guo on multiple charges including racketeering, fraud, and money laundering, with his formal sentencing now issued. Prosecutors stated that Guo defrauded over $1 billion from global victims through a series of related scam schemes spanning five years. Notably, in 2021, he promoted the cryptocurrency project Himalaya Coin (H-Coin), claiming the tokens were backed by 20% gold reserves and promising to cover all investors’ losses, raising approximately $500 million in total. Additionally, the court previously ordered the forfeiture of nearly $900 million in Guo’s illegal proceeds, as well as his luxury mansion in New Jersey and multiple high-end vehicles. Guo had close ties to Steve Bannon, a former senior advisor to US President Donald Trump; Bannon was arrested in 2020 aboard Guo’s yacht.
3 hours ago
The first-half 2026 funding rankings have been released, with Kalshi and Polymarket raising a combined $1.8 billion.
According to statistics, the 14 largest global funding rounds in the first half of 2026 raised a total of $4.3 billion, with prediction markets, AI, and payment sectors drawing the most investor interest. Specifically, prediction market platform Kalshi topped the list with a $1.2 billion funding round, while Polymarket secured $600 million—together, the two raised $1.8 billion, accounting for over 40% of the total capital of the top 14 rounds. In the AI space, Replit, Exa AI, and OpenRouter closed funding rounds of $400 million, $250 million, and $113 million respectively. For blockchain projects, Canton Network, Arc, and Morpho raised $355 million, $222 million, and $175 million respectively. Meanwhile, payment, RWA, infrastructure, and compliance projects including Rain, Slash, Goldcom, Alpaca, and Elliptic also featured on the list.
3 hours ago
Open Standard launches stablecoin Open USD, with over 140 institutions including Visa, BlackRock, and Coinbase participating.
Open Standard has announced the launch of Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin for global fund flows, noting that over 140 enterprises have joined its ecosystem, including financial, payment, and crypto industry players such as Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, BlackRock, BNY, DBS, Coinbase, OKX, MetaMask, Aave, Ripple, Fireblocks, Solana, and Polygon. According to the introduction, Open USD follows three core design principles: supporting zero-cost, large-scale minting and redemption for enterprises; returning all reserve asset yields to partners after deducting a small management fee; and being governed by a board of directors composed of independent firm Open Standard and its partners, rather than controlled by a single issuer. Open Standard states that Open USD will officially launch later this year, with the goal of building an open, low-cost, high-throughput stablecoin infrastructure with a sharing economy mechanism to meet the needs of the internet economy and global enterprise-level payments.
3 hours ago
Pump.fun is discontinuing support for its tokenized agent issuance feature, stating it will focus on optimizing retail user trading experience.
Pump.fun announced it will immediately cease support for its Tokenized Agent token issuance feature. The feature will no longer be available for new token launches, though projects that have already activated it will remain unaffected. The platform noted that over recent months, consistent community feedback has pointed out that excessive issuance options have sparked unnecessary user vs. user (PVP) competition. Moving forward, Pump.fun will prioritize issuance models and product features that explicitly enhance retail trading experiences.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
PANews June 26 news, USDC announced on X that USDC privacy features are now live on Starknet, enabled by STRK20 — Starknet's privacy feature for ERC-20 tokens with built-in compliance capabilities. Users can shield, send, and unshield USDC while maintaining privacy of balances, amounts, and counterparty information on the public ledger. USDC remains a USD-denominated stablecoin, and the new privacy features are suitable for payments, fund flows, payroll, and on-chain financial activities on Starknet.
Skip to contentHow STRK20 brings confidential stablecoin payments to DeFi
Stablecoins have become the unit of account for onchain finance. They settle trades, move treasury, pay contributors, and back most of the liquidity that DeFi runs on. But every one of those transfers carries a cost that rarely gets named: it is permanently, irreversibly public.
On Starknet, this has changed with privacy features for USDC, built with STRK20. With STRK20, Starknet’s native privacy framework, USDC on Starknet gains confidential capabilities: shieldable, privately transferable, and usable across DeFi, without leaving the standard ERC-20 behind.
The transparency problem with blockchain transactionsSend stablecoins on any chain and you broadcast the full transaction to anyone watching: the sender, the recipient, the exact amount, and the timestamp, all written to a public ledger forever. For a base layer that’s a feature. For the entity actually moving the money, it’s an exposure.
A treasury rebalance reveals position size and intent. A market-making wallet leaks its strategy with every fill. Counterparties can map your entire balance history before you’ve signed a single agreement, and MEV searchers can reconstruct your behaviour from a single linked address. The transparency that makes the network trustworthy makes its most important asset hostile to anyone who needs discretion, which is to say most enterprises, most institutions, and a fair number of individuals who simply expect their finances to be their own.
Workarounds exist, but they fragment liquidity, demand new tokens, or wrap privacy in a separate app users have to trust and migrate to. None of that is the same thing as privacy on the asset you already hold.
Introducing USDC privacy features with STRK20STRK20 is a privacy framework for all ERC-20 tokens on Starknet. It lets any ERC-20 support shielded balances and private transfers without altering the token contract and without asking wallets or apps to rebuild from scratch. USDC is among the first stablecoins on Starknet to have these privacy capabilities.
The model is:
– Shield USDC to hold a private balance, invisible to outside observers on the public ledger.
– Unshield at any time to return to standard, fully transparent ERC-20 behaviour.
– Transfer shielded USDC privately, with asset type, amount, and participating wallets all hidden from outside view.
Crucially, this is privacy at the protocol level, not an app integration. It’s the same USDC, in the same wallet, private when you need it to be and visible when you don’t. There’s no second token, no bridge into a walled garden, no duplicated balance to reconcile.
How it worksShielding moves USDC into a privacy pool where balances and transfers are protected by zero-knowledge proofs rather than published in the clear. A private transfer proves the transaction is valid (funds exist, the sender is authorised, nothing is double-spent) without revealing what moved, how much, or between whom.
Proof generation happens operator-side; verification happens at the sequencer level, using the same infrastructure Starknet already uses to prove its own blocks. Unshielding reverses the process, returning USDC to the public ledger whenever the user chooses.
And it won’t price privacy as a tax. Unlike approaches that skim a percentage of transaction value, STRK20 charges a fixed fee per transaction, closer to a gas fee than a toll. That flat cost is what makes private stablecoin payments viable at real volume rather than only for the largest transfers.
Confidential DeFi on Ready X and XversePrivacy that strands your assets isn’t very useful, so STRK20 is built for assets to stay composable. From the privacy pool, users will be able to swap in and out of USDC confidentially on Ready and XVerse wallets
That means you can hold a private balance and still participate in onchain markets without re-exposing yourself the moment you want to do something with it. These are the first integrations, not the last; more DeFi venues will follow as the framework rolls out.
Compliance architecture and viewing keysPrivacy and auditability are usually framed as a trade-off. STRK20 is designed to deliver both, by building compliance rather than bolting it on.
When a user shields, they automatically register a viewing key. The key is scoped to that user and that user alone. If a legitimate legal request is made, a designated third-party auditing entity can use it to reconstruct *that specific user’s* transaction history, and nothing else. No other participant in the pool is affected, and access sits with authorised bodies under legal process, never with counterparties, observers, or the users themselves peering into one another.
The result is privacy for users by default, with a clean, scoped path to auditability for regulators when the law requires it.
Why StarknetNone of this is incidental to Starknet; it’s a direct consequence of what the network was built on. Years of zero-knowledge research and engineering by StarkWare produced a STARK-based proving and verification stack efficient enough to make private payments both cheap and scalable, rather than a premium feature reserved for whales.
That same efficiency is why STRK20 can support complex private payments at scale where other privacy designs hit a wall. And it isn’t experimental: verification runs on the very infrastructure Starknet has used to prove its own blocks in production for over five years. Shielded USDC inherits that foundation.
Stablecoins gave onchain finance a unit of account. STRK20 is set to give it a private one.
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Confidential stablecoin payments are here on Starknet. Follow the rollout and get the technical details at strk20.starknet.io
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Starknet (STRK), Zcash (ZEC), and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) are outpacing the short-term recovery in the cryptocurrency market, posting double-digit gains over the last 24 hours. The privacy coins and Artificial Intelligence (AI) token regain strength, aiming to extend the recovery further.
Starknet prepares for a potential breakout rally Starknet edges higher by 10% at press time on Thursday, extending the 21% rise from the previous day. The zero-knowledge-based Ethereum layer-2 recovery exceeds a local resistance trendline on the 4-hour chart, marking the highest trading price since February 2.
The privacy coin trades above the R1 Pivot Point at $0.2657 on the same chart, as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 72 enters the overbought zone, indicating strong buying. If STRK holds a decisive close above $0.2657, it could target the R2 Pivot Point at $0.3139.
Corroborating the upside, Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) extends the uptrend with rising green histogram bars suggesting a rise in bullish momentum on the 4-hour timeframe.
STRK/USDT 4-hour price chart.If STRK fails to hold the momentum, it could retest the 50-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.1973.
Zcash recovery aims to rechallenge the $750 resistanceZcash trades above $670 at the time of writing on Thursday, extending a rebound from the 50-period EMA on the 4-hour chart towards the $700 mark. However, the critical resistance for the privacy coins lies higher at the $750 supply zone, which has remained intact since November 7.
The upswing in ZEC prices marks a trend shift with the MACD crossing above its signal line, indicating renewed bullish momentum. However, the declining RSI, currently at 58, reflects underlying weakness in buying pressure.
ZEC/USDT 4-hour price chart.If ZEC flips before crossing $700, it could test the 50-period EMA at $609 or the S1 Pivot Point at $501 if the correction extends.
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance remains vulnerable in a retestArtificial Superintelligence Alliance token drops 3% by press time on Thursday, after recording 10% gains on the previous day. Still, the intraday pullback could be a retest of the resistance trendline breakout on the 4-hour chart, formed by connecting the highs on November 8 and 18.
A potential post-retest rebound in FET could target the R1 Pivot Point at $0.3543.
The momentum indicators on the 4-hour chart indicate bullish strength, as the MACD rise remains steady, with successively higher green histogram bars. Additionally, the RSI at 61 approaches the overbought zone with a fluctuating uptrend as buying pressure rises.
FET/USDT 4-hour price chart.On the flip side, if FET slips below the 200-period EMA at $0.3133, it would nullify the trendline breakout, risking the 50-period EMA at $0.2944.
[PRESS RELEASE – Singapore, Asia, July 29th, 2024]
Elastos BeL2 will partner with StarkWare to integrate Starknet ZKPs and Cairo programming language with BeL2 for Native Bitcoin DeFi apps Starknet integration enables BeL2 to deliver smart contracts and dapps without moving Bitcoin assets off the mainnet Starknet Grant validates strength of BeL2 innovation and leadership in the Native Bitcoin ecosystem Elastos BeL2 (Bitcoin Elastos Layer2) has secured a $25,000 grant from Starknet, a technology leader in zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). This significant endorsement highlights the Elastos BeL2 infrastructure and its critical role in advancing Native Bitcoin DeFi, particularly native Bitcoin lending. By integrating Starknet ZKPs and the Cairo programming language, Elastos’ BeL2 will enhance its ability to deliver smart contracts and decentralized apps (dapps) without moving Bitcoin (BTC) assets off the main network. This strategic partnership with Starknet demonstrates the growing acceptance and maturity of the BeL2 infrastructure, reinforcing Elastos’ commitment to market leadership in the evolving Bitcoin DeFi market.
Starknet, developed by StarkWare, is renowned for its advances in ZKP technology, which enhance the privacy and security of blockchain transactions. ZKPs allow one party to prove to another that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement itself. This technology is fundamental to scaling blockchain networks, which will enhance BeL2’s ability to integrate complex smart contracts while maintaining Bitcoin’s integrity and security.
“We are delighted to receive this Starknet grant and announce our partnership to build tighter integrations with its ZKP technology and the Cairo programming language,” said Sasha Mitchell, Head of Bitcoin Layer 2, Elastos. “This is a major milestone for BeL2 and a real endorsement of the maturity and capabilities of our core technology. This support will allow us to further build out our Native Bitcoin lending innovation, as we look to leverage the growing acceptance of Bitcoin as a viable alternative financial system.”
Closer integration with Cairo will enable BeL2 to use this powerful programming language to enhance Bitcoin’s capabilities and deliver secure, efficient, and scalable decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Specifically, the relationship with Cairo strengthens BeL2’s leading technical innovations, which include:
ZKPs to ensure secure and private transaction verification Decentralized arbitration using collateralized nodes to supervise and enforce fairness in Native Bitcoin DeFi BTC Oracle facilitating cross-chain interactions where information, not assets, are exchanged while Bitcoin remains on the main infrastructure BeL2’s vision extends beyond technical innovation to pioneering a new financial system. The goal is to build a Bitcoin-backed Bretton Woods system, addressing global debt crises and enhancing Bitcoin’s role as a global hard currency. This new system will be anchored by the integrity and security of Bitcoin, providing a stable foundation for decentralized financial applications.
As the integration with Starknet and the Cairo programming language expands, BeL2 will deliver further advancements in smart contract capabilities, decentralized arbitration, and innovative financial products. At Token 2049, BeL2 will demonstrate further innovations in its core technologies, particularly around arbiters, which will underline the Elastos vision to deliver a more equitable, decentralized financial system anchored by Bitcoin.
About Elastos Elastos is a public blockchain project that integrates blockchain technology with a suite of reimagined platform components to produce a modern Internet infrastructure that provides intrinsic protection for privacy and digital asset ownership. The mission is to build accessible, open-source services for the world, so developers can build an internet where individuals own and control their data.
The Elastos SmartWeb platform enables organizations to recalibrate how the Internet works for them to better control their own data.
Layer-2 crypto projects are moving again. A radical increase in social interaction has been observed in the layer-2 ecosystem, with recent information from Phoenix Group and LunarCrush revealing both impressive peaks of interactions on large networks. On the latest report released on 28 November 2025, ZK has been the most social-activity project with regard to layer-2.
The network showed 4.8K engaged posts and 372.3K total interactions, which is significant and proves the increased interest of the community and a powerful narrative developing around the solutions based on ZK-based scaling.
This momentum is timely as layer-2 crypto technologies are gradually being considered as an indispensable component of enabling blockchain scalability to achieve faster execution and lower costs without sacrificing the security. The supremacy of ZK implies the emergence of investor confidence, high activity of developers and active online discussion that promotes its visibility.
Linea Secures Second Position With Over 2 Million Interactions Close behind, Linea ranked second highest in the social activity category with the number of engaged posts being 3.9K and massively interacting with 2.1 million posts.
The level of participation is an indication that Linea remains one of the most debated layer-2 crypto ecosystems, presumably due to its developer friendly infrastructure and ongoing ecosystem expansions.
The consistent action of social platforms by Linea implies a stronger community and gradual project momentum. The growing list of dApps, integrations, and collaboration seems to be fueling traffic of users on social media.
Starknet Maintains Strong Engagement With 494K Interactions Starknet was ranked third place with 3.6K engaged posts and 494K interactions, which supports its status as a key player in the zk rollup competition. Due to its attention to smart contract creation in Cairo and its highly scalable nature, Starknet is becoming stronger in the developer and crypto communities.
The extent of online engagement implies continued expectations of the Starknet roadmap milestones and ecosystem upgrades, as well as more users engaging with its growing DeFi ecosystem.
Optimism and Celo Highlight Mid-Tier Strength In the middle of the ranks are Optimism (OP) and Celo whose continuous updates of their ecosystems and community-focused efforts propel them.
Optimism had 2.2K engaged posts with 72.2K interactions, and it is constantly engaged due to its robust governance framework and Superchain story.
In the meantime, Celo shared 2.1K engaged posts and a staggering 985.1K interactions, proving that the discussion of its switch to an Ethereum layer-2 architecture remains a very strong topic on the Internet platforms.
Arbitrum, Stacks, and Polygon Show Stable Growth Arbitrum (ARB) also registered 1.9K active posts and 129.4K interactions, which is a stable engagement since it is one of the biggest and most popular layer-2 crypto network.
Stacks (STX), which continues its Bitcoin-layer innovations, registered 1.8K posts and 168.4K interaction, which is a positive indicator of the growing interest in Bitcoin-compatible smart contract ecosystems.
The Polygon (POL) continued to have a stable dialogue in the community, creating 1.4K posts and 67.7K interactions, even though the market activity was lower.
Mantle and Immutable X Round Out the Top 10 Layer-2 Crypto List The last two of the leading layer-2 crypto projects were Mantle (MNT) with 1.4K posts engaged and 102.9K interactions, and Immutable X (IMX) with 1.2K posts engaged and 164.1K interactions. The two ecosystems are still shaping their reputations well, with Mantle and Immutable X gaining market dominance in the gaming and NFT spaces respectively.
Social activity is one of the most effective signals of market mood and user activity as layer-2 crypto projects are becoming the cornerstones of blockchain scalability.
AUTHOR
With over five years of experience in crypto, blockchain, and tech content, Ishtiyaq makes complex topics easy to understand. He simplifies blockchain and digital currency concepts for a wide audience, ensuring that beginners and experts alike can grasp key ideas. His clear and engaging writing helps readers stay informed about the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the crypto space. Whether explaining blockchain technology, digital assets, or DeFi, Ishtiyaq breaks down complicated ideas into simple, digestible content. His goal is to help people navigate the fast-changing world of cryptocurrency with confidence, clarity, and a deeper understanding.
Key NotesBinance plans on temporarily suspending deposits and withdrawals on some networks.Users will not be able to deposit and withdraw tokens based on Ethereum networks during this period.Trading is not affected by the suspension. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance intends to briefly halt deposits and withdrawals for select tokens on May 7, 2025, starting around 09:45 (UTC), in order to accommodate the Ethereum network upgrade and hard fork, aiming to maintain optimal user experience
Binance disclosed that it plans on temporarily suspending the deposits and withdrawals of tokens based on the following networks “Ethereum (ETH), Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), zkSync Era (ZKSYNC), Base (BASE), Manta Network (MANTA), Starknet (STRK), Polygon (POL), Metis (METIS), Scroll (SCR), Cyber (CYBER), Metal DAO (MTL), Celo (CELO) and Worldcoin (WLD)”.
This temporary suspension is intended to support the smooth execution of the Ethereum network upgrade and hard fork. According to the announcement, only deposits and withdrawals will be impacted, while trading on the affected networks will remain operational. Binance also stated that it will manage all technical aspects on behalf of its users.
The crypto exchange added that once everything is “deemed to be stable”, the deposits and withdrawals for the select tokens will begin.
Hard forks typically result in the creation of a separate blockchain that runs alongside the original one. All current nodes and miners must transition to the new chain. Hard forks are used to improve the functionality of the network, such as fixing security vulnerabilities, introducing new functionalities, upgrading the cryptocurrency’s core system, or undoing previous transactions.
Past and Future Network Upgrades The crypto exchange will also suspend the withdrawals and deposits for the Optimism and Metal DAO networks on May 9. Once the update is completed, withdrawals and deposits will begin automatically without additional announcements.
Previously, the crypto exchange has temporarily disabled deposit and withdrawal functions across various networks to facilitate upgrades and hard forks. For instance, transactions involving tokens on the THORChain (RUNE) network were paused on May 1 at 14:00 (UTC) to support a scheduled upgrade.
Similarly, on May 5, at around 06:00 (UTC), Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals for tokens on the IPTA network to accommodate its network enhancement and hard fork.
Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
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Rose is a crypto content writer with a strong background in finance and tech. She simplifies complex blockchain and cryptocurrency topics, offering insightful articles and market analysis to help readers navigate the evolving crypto landscape.
Privacy in DeFi has always been something of an oxymoron. You can be pseudonymous, sure, but every swap, stake, and transfer is readable on-chain by anyone with a block explorer and five minutes to kill. Starknet is betting that its zero-knowledge architecture can change that equation without triggering compliance nightmares.
The Ethereum Layer 2 network, built by StarkWare, has rolled out the “Shieldnet” branding to describe its growing suite of privacy features. These include shielded balances, private transfers, and the ability to interact anonymously with DeFi applications. All of it runs on Starknet’s ZK-native infrastructure, which means the cryptographic proofs that secure the rollup double as the engine powering user privacy.
From STRK20 to strkBTC: the privacy stack takes shape The foundation was the STRK20 framework, which went live on March 10, 2026. That upgrade introduced the core privacy primitives: shielded token balances and the plumbing needed for confidential transactions.
A follow-up called the Shinobi upgrade landed on April 21, 2026, further refining the architecture. Then came strkBTC on May 12, 2026, the first STRK20-compatible asset. It’s a wrapped Bitcoin token on Starknet that gives holders the option to shield their transactions while still plugging into DeFi protocols like any other token.
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Users can choose whether to keep their BTC holdings visible or shielded. The design also includes viewing keys, which let holders selectively reveal transaction data for audits, tax reporting, or regulatory purposes.
Starknet’s official channels began promoting the Shieldnet branding around May 23, 2026, packaging these features into a coherent narrative for users and institutions alike. There is no separate Shieldnet token. The existing STRK token remains the ecosystem’s native asset.
What users actually get Starknet users can now interact with dApps, including Ekubo swaps and staking protocols, without broadcasting every detail of their financial activity to the world.
This selective disclosure model is what Starknet is positioning as “compliance-ready privacy.” A hedge fund can keep its trading positions private from competitors while still providing auditors with the keys they need.
The numbers behind the narrative As of late May 2026, the network reported total value locked of $655 million and roughly 47,000 daily active users.
The STRK token has seen notable market activity around privacy-related announcements. Each privacy upgrade, from STRK20 to strkBTC to the Shieldnet branding itself, has generated market attention.
What this means for investors The institutional angle is worth watching closely. Traditional finance players have repeatedly cited on-chain transparency as a barrier to DeFi adoption. If Starknet’s privacy tools prove robust and regulators don’t object, the $655 million TVL figure could look like an early inning.
The US Treasury’s actions against Tornado Cash demonstrated that even non-custodial privacy technology can attract enforcement attention. Starknet’s viewing key model is a more measured approach, but it hasn’t been tested against actual regulatory scrutiny.
The absence of a separate Shieldnet token is a positive signal for existing STRK holders. It means the privacy narrative accrues to the existing token rather than fragmenting value across a new asset. For traders tracking the STRK ecosystem, the next catalyst to watch is whether additional assets beyond strkBTC adopt the STRK20 shielding standard, and whether any major DeFi protocol integrates Shieldnet’s privacy features as a default rather than an opt-in.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Skip to content Privacy built into the DeFi you already use
For years, private DeFi has forced users into a trade-off. You could have privacy, but it usually meant leaving your normal wallet, using a separate privacy application, or accepting a user experience that felt disconnected from the rest of DeFi.
As a result, private DeFi never became normal DeFi. STRK20 changes that.
STRK20 is Starknet’s privacy framework for ERC-20 assets. It enables shielded balances, private transfers, and private app flows through supported wallets and applications, making privacy usable where onchain activity already happens.
This is what makes the next wave of Starknet DeFi different. Users can still trade, swap, lend, borrow, and stake, but these actions can now happen with an additional layer of privacy.
That is the unlock: privacy integrated into DeFi that already exists.
Privacy starts in the wallet The first major change users will notice is simple: supported assets can be shielded directly from the wallet.
Ready X and Xverse will be two of the primary interfaces for shielding assets. In the first phase, users will be able to shield, unshield, manage shielded balances, and execute supported swaps.
This matters because privacy should not require users to remember a separate website or move into a separate product. It should appear inside the wallets and apps they already use to manage assets and interact with DeFi.
Under the hood, different applications can support this in different ways. Some flows may be handled directly through wallet interfaces. Others may be initiated by DeFi applications that connect to the wallet through privacy APIs and anonymizing contracts.
Starknet’s direction is clear: users should be able to manage visible balances, shielded balances, and supported private DeFi flows from familiar wallets and apps.
Swapping through avnu and Ekubo Swaps are where STRK20’s design becomes clear.
Imagine a user starts with shielded USDC and wants to swap into ETH.
From the user’s perspective, the action should feel familiar: choose the input asset, choose the output asset, confirm the transaction, and receive the new shielded balance.
The important part is what the user does not need to do. They do not need to move into a separate private DEX, wait for a new private market to form, or rely on isolated liquidity for that pair.
The swap can still route through existing Starknet liquidity. avnu can route the trade across available venues, while Ekubo can serve as a core liquidity venue where swaps execute.
That is what makes the design practical: STRK20 connects privacy to the existing DeFi market structure Starknet already has.
What happens under the hood in an anonymous swap The anonymizing contract is what makes this feel simple to the user while still routing through normal Starknet liquidity.
In the USDC to ETH example, the user signs a private transaction with three main parts.
Shielded USDC is unshielded into the anonymizing contract, creating the open note that can be used inside the swap flow. The anonymizing contract executes the swap through existing Starknet liquidity using the route and arguments provided. The anonymizing contract returns the output amount, creating a new private note for the user, which is privately redeposited to the user’s account in the pool. The user starts with shielded USDC and ends with shielded ETH. The result is one atomic transaction: USDC exits the privacy pool, the swap happens through existing public liquidity, and ETH re-enters the privacy pool as a private balance.
This does not mean every detail disappears. Amounts moving through public liquidity are still visible. What changes is the direct link between the user’s wallet and the DeFi action. The user is no longer simply broadcasting the swap from their ordinary public address.
There is one practical consideration: anonymity depends on the size and quality of the privacy set. If only one person has ever shielded a specific asset, that activity is easier to reason about from the outside. As more users shield, transfer, swap, and manage supported assets, the anonymity set strengthens.
That is the practical design choice. STRK20 does not create a separate private DEX with separate liquidity. It lets users access the liquidity Starknet already has while breaking the direct public link between the user’s wallet and the DeFi action.
Private lending and borrowing through Vesu Lending is where private DeFi starts to become especially powerful.
A public DeFi loan reveals a lot. Observers can often see what a wallet supplied, what it borrowed, how large the position is, and how that position changes over time. For individuals, this exposes personal financial activity. For larger holders, funds, and institutions, it can reveal capital movements and strategy.
STRK20 introduces a path toward more private credit activity on Starknet, but the first phase will be more manual than wallet-based swaps.
For example, a user could start with shielded strkBTC and want to borrow USDC against it. In the early flow, they need to unshield the strkBTC, supply it as collateral on Vesu, borrow USDC, and then shield the USDC after the loan is executed.
The collateral inside Vesu is still visible while it is locked in the public lending market. The privacy benefit comes from the user’s ability to start from a shielded balance and shield the borrowed asset after execution.
Credit is one of the most important functions in any financial system. This is why lending protocols, such as Vesu, are an important part of STRK20’s broader DeFi vision. Bringing privacy to lending does not mean hiding risk from the protocol. It means reducing unnecessary public exposure while keeping DeFi functional, composable, and useful.
Staking with private assets through Endur Staking brings the yield layer into private DeFi.
Endur is building liquid staking infrastructure for Starknet assets, including STRK and strkBTC. As Starknet expands both staking and BTCFi, liquid staking tokens can become a core part of Starknet DeFi. STRK20 adds a new dimension to this: assets such as xSTRK and xstrkBTC can become shieldable.
Example flow: a user starts with strkBTC, stakes it through Endur, and receives xstrkBTC. Once supported, that xstrkBTC can be shielded, allowing the user to hold a yield-bearing BTC position privately.
Privacy should not force assets to become idle. Users should be able to protect visibility while still earning yield.
At launch, staking may not be fully private from every interface. Some users may stake through the normal Endur flow and then shield xstrkBTC afterward. As wallet and app integrations improve, staking should become more directly accessible from the same private asset experience.
This is one of the clearest examples of practical privacy. It applies privacy to a normal user goal: earning yield.
What is available now, and what’s to come The first phase of STRK20 is the start of private DeFi on Starknet.
Through wallets like Ready X and Xverse, users can shield assets, manage shielded balances, and execute supported in-wallet swaps. These swaps can access existing liquidity through venues such as avnu and Ekubo, benefiting from the composability and scalability of STRK20’s design.
More advanced DeFi flows come next. Lending through Vesu, staking through Endur, and more complex private vault strategies from ForgeYields and Troves.
That is the phased rollout. Privacy starts with assets, then expands to broader DeFi workflows.
What private DeFi makes possible In one broader flow, the user can:
Shield BTC through strkBTC Stake into xstrkBTC Shield xstrkBTC Borrow USDC against xstrkBTC Shield USDC Trade privately with shielded USDC This is the private DeFi unlock: privacy that moves with the user across DeFi, from holding and staking to borrowing, trading, and earning yield.
Every private transaction requires 4 STRK tokens, no variable price points will apply.
Privacy becomes compatible with the activities people already come to DeFi for.
That is why Starknet’s approach matters. Privacy is built into the existing ecosystem, enabling private DeFi that is usable where crypto already works.
Private DeFi starts on Starknet.
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Robinhood launches trading of three new tokens: BAT, FLR, and STRK.
PANews reported on June 4 that Robinhood has added support for trading three new tokens: Basic Attention Token (BAT), Flare (FLR), and Starknet (STRK), covering users in compliant regions including New York State.
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US Three Major Indexes Mixed, HOOD Down Over 6.11%
PANews reported on June 6th that Starknet v0.14.3 will be launched on the mainnet this month, with the testnet launch scheduled for June 9th and the mainnet launch scheduled for June 22nd. The new version will support dynamic L2 Gas base fee adjustment based on STRK, improve block generation speed, reduce target L2 Gas consumption per block while maintaining the maximum block size, and deprecate RPC 0.8. Due to the significant changes in this update, the official team strongly recommends that all developers carefully read the pre-release notes to prepare for compatibility and upgrades.
