Swap STRK at the Best Rate

What is STRK?

STRK is the working token of a layer 2: it is how Starknet charges for blockspace, pays its validators and coordinates protocol decisions. The canonical supply lives in an ERC-20 contract on Ethereum, and tokens move through the official StarkGate bridge to Starknet itself, where fees and staking actually happen.

StarkWare created ten billion STRK in May 2022 and minted them on-chain on 30 November 2022. Distribution to the public began on 20 February 2024, when the Starknet Foundation opened the Provisions airdrop that allocated more than 700 million tokens to users, builders and contributors in its first round.

How STRK works

Since Starknet version 0.14.0 went live on 1 September 2025, transaction fees can only be paid natively in STRK; paying in other tokens requires a paymaster service that converts on the fly. Part of the collected STRK is converted by sequencers to cover the ETH cost of posting proofs and data to Ethereum. The same upgrade decentralized block production around a multi-sequencer architecture with a fee market modeled on Ethereum's EIP-1559.

Staking secures this machinery. Validators lock a minimum of 20,000 STRK, delegators can back them with any amount, and since the third quarter of 2025 holders of tokenized BTC can stake alongside, earning rewards in STRK. Rewards come from new issuance under a minting curve whose rate rises with the share of supply staked, with an inflation coefficient set at 4%.

STRK supply and tokenomics

The initial ten billion split across community programs and insiders. Roughly 12.9% went to grants, 9% to community provisions and 9% to community rebates, while early contributors received about 20% and investors about 18.2%, with the remainder held by StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation, which launched holding just over half the supply to fund its mission.

Contributor and investor tranches unlock on a published schedule: up to 127 million tokens, 1.27% of supply, release on the 15th of each month from April 2025 through March 2027. Staking inflation adds new tokens on top of the genesis supply, so STRK is not hard-capped.

Who builds STRK

StarkWare, the company behind STARK proof systems and the Cairo language, develops the core protocol and created the token. The Starknet Foundation, established ahead of the token launch, holds ecosystem allocations, runs distribution programs like Provisions and DeFi incentives, and stewards governance. Between them the two organizations still hold a large share of supply, which the published distribution tables lay out.

What people use STRK for

STRK is consumed and locked by the network's own operation, which distinguishes it from tokens whose only role is voting.

• Paying gas for every Starknet transaction, natively or through a paymaster.
• Running a validator with the 20,000 STRK minimum stake.
• Delegating stake, or pairing it with tokenized BTC staking, for minting-curve rewards.
• Voting on protocol upgrades such as new Starknet versions.

STRK risks and considerations

Supply overhang is measurable: monthly unlocks of up to 1.27% of supply continue into 2027, and staking issuance adds inflation on top. A large share of tokens remains with the Foundation and StarkWare, so decentralization of holdings is a work in progress even as sequencing decentralizes.

Starknet competes with other Ethereum rollups for users and fees, and its Cairo-based stack means applications are not directly portable from EVM chains. The STRK traded on Ethereum is the canonical contract, but fees and staking require bridging to Starknet, an extra step and an extra dependency.