StarkWare trims Starknet staff, refocuses on revenue

StarkWare said it has reduced staff on its Starknet team and consolidated remaining employees into two “purpose-focused units” aimed at revenue-generating projects. CEO Eli Ben-Sasson posted the update on X on Monday and did not disclose the number of job cuts.

The reorganization centers work on business development, engineering, product and go-to-market activities. Ben-Sasson framed the change as a shift from a pure infrastructure emphasis to faster execution and active revenue discovery, writing that the company must sharpen operations to generate cash and find product-market fit through experimentation.

Ben-Sasson wrote that the company built what he called “the best infrastructure in the world” but added the firm now needs to “move fast” and that it is “too big and too inefficient for that.” He described the change as “a dramatic change” for remaining staff and said the company will aim to “do fewer things excellently” and return to “startup mode.” He also called the reorganization a “huge challenge” that will require “immense effort.”

StarkWare, founded eight years ago and based in Israel, develops an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network that uses zero-knowledge proofs to compress and verify transactions off-chain. The company has raised about $287 million across eight funding rounds. In February, a private-Bitcoin implementation with features similar to Zcash launched on Starknet.

The reorganization follows similar staffing reductions across the crypto sector this year. One competing layer-2 team disclosed about 20 layoffs, while another developer cut roughly 30 percent of its workforce, about 60 employees, as it refocused priorities.

On-chain metrics provide additional context. Over a recent 24-hour span, Starknet generated about $3,500 in chain revenue, while a competing chain produced roughly $89,000. Starknet’s native token traded near $0.03 on Monday, about a 75 percent decline over the past year.

StarkWare did not provide headcount numbers before or after the consolidation, nor did it specify which subteams were affected. The company said the new structure is intended to accelerate execution and clarify commercial priorities as it pursues revenue.