Welcome to the 23rd edition of my monthly recap, where I bring you the most important updates and developments from the Starknet ecosystem!

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Important news of the month

Bitcoin on Starknet, Starknet on Bitcoin

As always, the Bitcoin cooking on Starknet keeps getting spicier.

First up, DOG, the top Bitcoin memecoin by market cap, is now deeply integrated into the Starknet ecosystem. Now:

Tradable on AVNU, Remus, Layer Akira and Fibrous
Usable to lend and borrow on Vesu
Tradable and usable as LP token on Ekubo (DeFi Spring incentives now live for DOG)

Bridge your Runes. Trade your Runes. Earn yield with your Runes. Just do more with your Runes on Starknet.

A new BTC flavor is also live: tBTC is now mintable directly on Starknet, ready to be integrated and deployed into Starknet DeFi.

Speaking of BTC, Layerswap now supports direct bridging from Bitcoin, and Starknet is the only chain, alongside Ethereum, offering this on Layerswap.

Finally, Bitcoin staking is coming to Starknet in Q3 2025, and we now have more details about it.

Main takeaways:

BTC holders will be able to stake their BTC on Starknet
BTC becomes part of Starknet’s economic security layer (up to 25% of validator staking power)
STRK remains the core staking asset (75%+ of validator power)
A BTC/STRK alignment mechanism will be introduced
Launch target: Q3 2025

And for Asset Runes:

USDC bridging between Bitcoin and Starknet is now live on StarkGate. You can mint USDC Runes on Bitcoin and redeem them anytime on Starknet.
USDC is now directly tradable on Bitcoin through the Magic Eden aggregator.

Starknet feeling better and better

The ecosystem keeps shipping at lightspeed, and the final milestones of the current roadmap are just weeks away.

First up, the new addition: Starknet v0.13.6 (Testnet; June 30 / Mainnet; July 8).

A minor version… but an important one, as it prepares Starknet for S-two integration, StarkWare’s next-gen prover.

S-two (MVP) will bring to Starknet:

Proving time drops from 24 min to under 3 min (for 2B L2 gas blocks)
Proving costs cut by 2x minimum

Note: S-two won’t go live with v0.13.6. This version just lays the groundwork for its activation later this year.

Then comes the big one: Starknet v0.14.0 (Testnet; July 7 / Mainnet; July 28).

Here’s what’s coming:

New sequencer architecture: 4 sequencers taking turns, coordinated through a Tendermint-like consensus. A massive step toward decentralization.
Pre-confirmations: perceived finality drops from ~2s to ~0.5s for most actions (swap, lend, borrow, LP, etc.)
Legacy tx deprecated: only v3 tx supported (RPC 0.8). While STRK becomes the only native gas token, you can still pay gas fees with other tokens through Paymasters (thanks to AVNU and Cartridge)
Mempool + EIP-1559: Tx priority now depends on fees, not FIFO. This also prepares for STRK burn from fees (with a mechanism similar to Ethereum).
Block time drops from 30s to 6s.

If you’re a developer, make sure to review this version carefully, as this version introduces some breaking changes.

More performance, better UX/DevX… but also more decentralization

Staking v2 is now live on Mainnet, improving economics and validator transparency.

The two big changes:

Block attestation: validators must attest to randomly selected blocks each epoch.
Commission increase: validators can adjust their commission under strict conditions.

With phase 2 completed, we’re now two versions away from the final staking architecture.

In terms of metrics, as of June 30:

310M STRK staked.
77/121 validators active (meaning validators attesting blocks)

On top of Staking v2, StarkWare has announced its upcoming participation in STRK staking, through two mechanisms:

Delegating millions of STRK to eligible validators, under conditions. You can already apply if you're interested in receiving delegation from StarkWare. The goal is to improve the decentralization factor by helping small validators.
Running its own validator, capped at 10% of the total staked STRK. For example, if the total staked is 1B STRK, StarkWare can stake a maximum of 100M STRK on its validator.

On a side note, Figment now supports STRK staking, meaning institutions can delegate their STRK to Figment.

Starknet Ecosystem Update

A new-generation Perp DEX coming to Starknet

Extended has just published their vision and migration plan to Starknet. The migration will be smooth for users and starts in the first half of July.

Reminder: Extended’s launch is, imo, the biggest DeFi launch on Starknet since Vesu. It will offer:

Perp trading on 50+ assets with up to x100 leverage
Crypto pairs, but also TradFi markets (Gold, Nasdaq, USD, EUR…)
A community vault yielding ~22% in USDC
Built by a team with serious credentials (ex-Revolut)
Full EVM wallet support (MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom, etc.)

All directly from Starknet.

Ngl, I can’t wait for this one.

Wolf Pack League is now open to everyone

The Wolf Pack League is officially open, a program that lets anyone (content creators, devs, designers…) contribute to Starknet’s growth and get rewarded for it. Projects can also create their own bounties.

With it:

Projects get instant access to Starknet’s creator and dev community to fuel their growth.
Creators and devs get an open platform to find gigs tailored to their skills, and earn.

A pure win-win for Starknet’s growth.

Dev on Starknet, without writing a single line of Cairo

Cairo Coder is live.

It lets you generate Cairo smart contracts or programs directly in Cursor, fully compatible with the entire Starknet dev stack and always up-to-date.

In simple terms: build on Starknet without writing a single line of Cairo.

With it, anyone can dev and ship.

Write nothing. Generate everything.

Endur Points Program & Airdrop

Endur, the liquid staking protocol on Starknet, has introduced its points program. Basically, you can earn daily points simply by holding or using xSTRK in DeFi.

On top of the points you’ve already accumulated, note that if you’re an early Endur user, they will airdrop all the revenue they’ve generated to users. The checker is already live here.