Welcome to the 20th edition of my monthly recap, where I bring you the most important updates and developments from the Starknet ecosystem!

Important news of the month

Starknet is by far the most cost-efficient Rollup, and it just got even cheaper

Starknet v0.13.5 is here, providing lower fees for EVERYONE, better DevX, and some optimizations to prepare the ecosystem for Starknet v0.14.0 coming in Q2 2025.

Before this update, Starknet was already the most cost-efficient Rollup, and this update has widened the gap even further. In terms of average cost per user, here’s how much more expensive each L2 is compared to Starknet (according to L2Beat):

Fuel: ~7.1x more expensive
Linea: ~7.8x more expensive
INK: ~8.8x more expensive
Base: ~13.6x more expensive
OP Mainnet: ~18.4x more expensive
Arbitrum: ~25x more expensive

This means Starknet has far more flexibility in the long run to keep gas fees low for users, which will matter a lot if/when blob prices go brrr.

Starknet quickly advancing on its decentralization journey

First point to mention here is that the vote on Staking v2 has ended a few days ago, and all parameters have been approved by the community. During Q2 2025, these parameters will be implemented on Mainnet, and we’ll be halfway toward the final architecture of STRK staking, only 4 months after launching this journey.

The two key advancements brought by this v2 are:

Validator Block Attestation: Starknet will now run in epochs, and validators will need to attest to randomly selected blocks.
Commission Changes: Validators can now increase their commission under strict rules

Speaking of decentralization, here is the full Starknet plan to become fully decentralized.

Starknet creating a new bold narrative: Bitcoin and Ethereum together

10 months ago, StarkWare announced its plan to scale Bitcoin in addition to Ethereum.

After months of research, BD, and partnerships, the Starknet ecosystem is finally ready to accelerate and introduce a wide range of new Bitcoin use cases over the coming months. Here’s the full plan.

And here are the main takeaways and what has already launched since that announcement:

Bitcoin staking is coming
Rune and other Bitcoin assets are coming (a dedicated bridge is currently being built)
StarkWare has built a strategic reserve of BTC & ETH and plans to accumulate more over time
Bitcoin Lightning Payments are now directly usable from Starknet via the Braavos mobile wallet, allowing users to pay for real-world purchases in STRK at any vendor that accepts Lightning Network payments
Xverse, one of the leading Bitcoin wallets, is currently integrating Starknet. Their first product, cross-chain swaps between Bitcoin and Starknet, is already live, allowing users to swap BTC from Bitcoin to STRK on Starknet and vice versa.
A new incentive program specially designed by the Starknet Foundation for BTC is coming
iBTC is coming to Starknet
Users can tips on Nostr using STRK
Everyone can fund a Cashu wallet privately using Starknet

Believe me, MUCH more is coming.

Noir devs (Aztec ecosystem) can now leverage Starknet for their ZK-powered applications

Noir devs can now verify Noir proofs on Starknet without writing a single line of Cairo, thanks to the Garade SDK. As such, they can now enjoy fast, cheap, and scalable ZK proofs for their private dApps — and broadens the range of builders who can tap into Starknet’s full power.

Starknet Ecosystem Update

STRK staking now available on Binance Simple Earn

Binance is finally supporting STRK staking, allowing holders to stake with more flexibility directly from the CEX.

Argent drops major product updates

The Argent Metal card is here: featuring zero hidden fees, cashback, full self-custody, and usable anywhere Mastercard is accepted. You can now get yours.

Argent wallet has integrated AVNU's Paymaster into its wallet, enabling users to pay gas fees in over 10 tokens directly within the wallet. No need to hold ETH or STRK just for gas.

Finally, Argent has released its invisible wallet SDK, allowing devs to build dApps with a web2-like experience using smart accounts, session keys, and gasless transactions — all wrapped into a single SDK.

Art/Peace is back

Art Peace is live with a one-month open edition and a full lineup of limited-time and competitive events.

Missed the action so far? Watch the timelapse and Shadowfax’s recap video to catch up.

A new stablecoin, $15M liquidity & a new pool curator

Relend has launched its stablecoin on Starknet, and supplying $15M of rUSDC-stark to the Re7 pool on Vesu. This unlocks new lending/borrowing strategies natively on Starknet.

Meanwhile, Alterscope joins as a curator on Vesu, introducing fresh lending/borrowing pools, including some built around the CASH (Opus) stablecoin.

zkLend launches Recovery Portal

If you were affected by the zkLend exploit, you can now reclaim a portion of your lost funds through the recovery portal. You can also donate to the relief pool — 100% of contributions go to affected users.

AVNU expands liquidity with Layer Akira & Remus

Layer Akira v2 and Remus DEX are now integrated into AVNU, providing deeper aggregated liquidity and better pricing for traders.

Paradex Chain Testnet is live

Paradex Chain Testnet is now live, allowing Cairo devs to build on both Starknet and Paradex. This is the first public chain, after Starknet, to be accessible to Cairo devs.

Starknet expands into LATAM

The Starknet Foundation partners with Espacio Cripto to support top founders across Mexico and Latin America and accelerate Web3 startup growth there.

Devs, builders, and hackers opportunities

First, a new Starknet Hacker House kick off on April 10 in India, featuring a new gamified way to hack. You can still register but be quick.

The STRK staking contract will undergo a CodeHawks audit contest starting April 3 with $80K in USDC prizes. Your time to shine whitehats.

Some ecosystem metrics

Over 200M STRK are now staked on Starknet:

Starknet hit a new ATH in Cairo devs in February:

Developer retention remains strong:

Alpha Zone

This month, 6 new projects went live on Starknet Mainnet:

Remus – a fully onchain orderbook DEX
StarkCrash – a classic crash game
Budokan – a tournament platform with onchain payments, leaderboards & prizes
Fundable – a one-stop platform for automated Web3 payments
Q3X – AI-powered account management
Custosdiretriz – decentralized safe for agreements & crime reporting

Two projects have also integrated Starknet:

Capa – buy & sell USDC on Starknet directly from their platform
Crypto Tax Calculator – import your Argent/Braavos wallets and generate tax reports

When it comes to Testnet, one have launched this past month:

Ponziland – onchain strategy game where players buy, sell, and manage land

In terms of new projects building on Starknet, here are all new projects discovered this month:

Wolf Nation – NFT collection
Tenpercentfun – new gaming project
Lumos App – UX-first DeFi platform
Typhoon – Tornado Cash-style mixer
Forge – cross-chain unified yield layer
Olas Protocol – trust-based info aggregation protocol
Swarm Zero – AI agents marketplace
Redefine – onchain analytics
Itura – platform for art and culture
And for all diggers out there, here are the top 5 winners of the biggest Eliza (AI agents framework) focused hackathon from StarkWare, and here the top 5 from Realms.