Starknet is no longer underestimated: The hidden rise of an L2 in the light of data

In mid-January 2026, the “PR war” between Solana and Starknet on social media created a complex picture of what the numbers truly reveal. Solana publicly criticized Starknet for having too few daily active users, but behind those figures lies a completely different story: Starknet is no longer the rejected project it once was but has transformed into a highly selective ecosystem focused on users with real value.

From “Ghost Town” to Recovery Around 2024, the L2 market has experienced intense competition, while Arbitrum and OP mainnet dominate most on-chain activity. After the airdrop program ended, Starknet went through a difficult period with a significant decline in user numbers. However, from September 2025 onwards, the landscape began to change.

According to data from DeFiLlama, Starknet’s total value locked (TVL) has started to recover, now exceeding $300 million, returning to 2024 levels. More importantly, in the global blockchain rankings, Starknet has risen to the 22nd position, surpassing other well-known L1 and L2 projects such as Monad, Scroll, Linea, and Sei. The project’s daily transaction fee revenue has also maintained around $5,000-$10,000 over the past four months.

Although this figure is smaller than the peak period of 2023-2024 (when daily averages exceeded $150,000), Starknet still ranks in the top 15 blockchains by fee revenue, surpassing projects like Monad and TON.

Fewer but Higher Quality Users Currently, the number of daily active addresses on Starknet remains between 2,000-4,000, with over 240,000 transactions per day. Compared to the peak in 2023 when over 100,000 users were active daily, this may seem insignificant. But a deeper look into the data reveals a different picture.

The transaction frequency of the remaining addresses has now reached about one-third of the 2023 level (when there were over 600,000 transactions daily), even though the number of users accounts for less than 2% of that period. This demonstrates that current Starknet users are not just there to “hunt” for airdrops. They are serious traders with genuine needs, generating most of the fee revenue for the network.

In other words, Starknet has shifted from an ecosystem driven by temporary incentives to a community of users with real purpose.

Capital Flows Don’t Lie Another proof that Starknet is no longer underestimated is the interest from institutional investors. According to data from the analytics platform Artemis, the net capital inflow into Starknet over the past three months reached $504.2 million, leading the global blockchain rankings. Polygon is in second place but with about $100 million less. Other blockchains like Solana and BSC are far behind.

This attention from the investment community is not accidental. It reflects a clear strategy that Starknet has adopted.

Moving Beyond L2 Labels, Toward BTCFi What sets Starknet apart from other competitors is that Starknet does not try to compete directly in the Meme space or chase “hot” stories that other blockchains pursue. Instead, the project has decided to “go all in” on BTCFi.

Since March 2025, StarkWare’s parent company announced the establishment of a “strategic Bitcoin reserve.” At that time, many viewed this as just a temporary PR stunt. But Starknet proved its seriousness. By the end of September 2025, the project launched BTC Staking with an incentive package worth 100 million STRK. Users staking Bitcoin on Starknet can earn staking rewards combined with STRK incentives.

BTCFi Ecosystem: From “Nothing” to “Perfect” After more than three months of operation, on-chain data shows that BTCFi on Starknet has exceeded expectations. The value of Bitcoin staked now surpasses $214 million, accounting for 70% of Starknet’s total TVL ($300 million).

Of this, about 50% is original Bitcoin, with the rest being wrapped Bitcoin versions like SolvBTC and WBTC. The ecosystem has been fully built: from cryptocurrency wallets, cross-chain bridges, to lending and yield protocols.

Users can stake Bitcoin through platforms like Endur and Voyager, entrusting them to validators to earn STRK rewards (currently around 2.09% APY on Endur). The received LST tokens can then be sent to lending protocols like Vesu for additional yield. For institutional investors, Re7 Capital offers customized profit options.

The Origin of the BTCFi Strategy Why is Starknet confident to choose the BTCFi path? The answer lies in the project’s roots. Starknet’s lead, Eli Ben-Sasson, began researching how to use zero-knowledge proofs to improve Bitcoin as early as 2013, even before Starknet was launched. Ultimately, that research became STARK—the fundamental cryptographic technology of Starknet.

Focusing on BTCFi now is not just a strategic decision but also a return to the project’s original ideals.

Conclusion: Stronger Steps Although the blockchain world never always rewards idealists and diligent grinders, Starknet has proven that after freeing itself from the pressure of airdrops, its steps have become clearer and more solid.

From a project criticized for its small user base, Starknet no longer needs to prove itself through loud numbers. Instead, it is building a truly valuable infrastructure where serious users can find real opportunities. It is a shift from “hot” to “solid”—and in the long run, that is the victory.