Starknet achieves 2.1 million TPS and $740 million STRK DeFi reboot

Starknet reached a 2.1 million transactions per second (TPS) benchmark this month. This performance follows the Bolt upgrade, which introduced parallel execution and block packing. Parallel execution allows the sequencer to process multiple independent transactions simultaneously, similar to the Block-STM model used by Aptos. Block packing reduced confirmation times to under 2 seconds for 80% of transactions and halved fixed L1 costs. These optimizations maintain average transaction fees at $0.002. The network capacity reaches 2.1 million transactions per second following the recent October 2026 benchmark, which allows for massive scalability through the use of STARK proofs that verify state transitions on Ethereum L1. The planned v0.14.4 upgrade supports larger block-sized proofs with a capacity of up to 1.1 billion Layer-2 gas. This expansion helps developers build computationally intensive applications while maintaining competitiveness against other zero-knowledge rollups. Fees on Starknet stay low because the network uses STARK proof batching to amortize proof costs across many transactions. This reduces the impact of L1 data fees, which remain the dominant cost component for all Layer 2 solutions.

STRK Tokenomics and DeFi Liquidity

The $740 million STRK DeFi incentive reboot provides liquidity to the ecosystem. This redistribution uses a portion of the 1.8 billion STRK allocated for community programs. The total supply of STRK reaches 10 billion, while 7,421,949,506 tokens currently circulate. Users use STRK to pay transaction fees, stake for decentralized sequencer selection, and participate in governance. The Starknet Foundation distributes STRK to users, developers, and Ethereum contributors. This specific program targets the expansion of decentralized finance and gaming applications. Earlier Provisions distributions sent 700 million STRK to nearly 1.3 million addresses. These allocations support those who laid the roots of the network through building and maintaining its infrastructure. A scheduled unlock of 127 million STRK occurs on October 15, representing approximately 1.3% of the total supply. This unlock involves early contributors and investors.

Customization through Cairo 3.0 Appchains

Appchains permit developers to configure block size, latency, and consensus mechanisms to match specific application needs. These sovereign ZK chains settle on Starknet L2 or Ethereum L1 through cryptographic proof aggregation. Developers use Cairo 3.0 to access native account abstraction and custom state transition functions. Appchains offer super scaling because they provide a dedicated network for specific applications. This avoids the overhead of unrelated applications. Developers also choose from over 50 different providers in the Starknet stack. Appchains allow for the implementation of unique features and logic that the public Starknet network does not support. Developers write code in Cairo, which converts to Sierra code to ensure security and prevent DoS attacks on the sequencer. This Sierra layer adds security by ensuring that even unprovable reverted transactions receive fees. The Cairo VM uses a single-write-only memory model where a memory slot cannot be overwritten. This design makes the system more predictable and verifiable during proof generation.

Developer Adoption and Ecosystem Growth

Cairo developer numbers increased 875% over the last two years. A survey of 92 developers shows 74% prefer Cairo over previous versions. Developers use Scarb for compilation and Starknet Foundry for testing. Most developers use VSCode as their primary IDE. However, the Cairo Language Server remains buggy and lacks performance. You likely know that Cairo requires a different mental model than Solidity. 61% of Starknet developers possess 3-5 years of development experience. The most popular CLI tool is Starkli, used by 46.7% of developers. Developers use tools like Katana and Devnet-rs to manage their workflows. Starknet maintains a TVL of $406.1 million and a market capitalization of $324.82 million. The STRK token price sits at $0.04376. Will the transition to decentralized sequencers fully resolve the centralization risks associated with proof aggregation?