Starknet's native token, $STRK, has experienced a significant breakout, surging above $0.27 and ending a 300-day consolidation period. This rally, which pushed daily trading volume past $1 billion, is largely driven by a massive increase in institutional staking demand and a renewed narrative linking the protocol to Zcash's legacy.
Institutional Support & Network Security
The core driver of the current momentum is the growing institutional support for staking:
- Anchorage Digital: The federally chartered digital asset bank began supporting Bitcoin staking on Starknet in November 2025, following its earlier support for institutional custody and staking of STRK.
- Asset Security: Over $300 million in value is now securing Starknet's consensus mechanism, including 920 million STRK and over 1,260 Bitcoin.
- Dual Staking Model: Starknet's use of both STRK and Bitcoin for staking distinguishes it from other Layer-2s and is attracting capital from traditional finance (TradFi) players concerned about security and compliance. This builds on the BTCFi initiative which incentivizes Bitcoin-based DeFi on Starknet.
Price Action and The "Ztarknet" Thesis
- Price Breakout: STRK is up 22.4% in 24 hours and nearly 98% over the past month, with its market cap reaching $1.26 billion.
- Zcash Narrative: The rally coincides with the "Ztarknet" thesis, which views Starknet as the spiritual successor to Zcash due to co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson's decade-long work on zero-knowledge proofs. Starknet is seen as evolving Zcash's on-chain privacy into a programmable Layer-2 environment.
Staking Demand Counters Unlock Pressure
While historically, token unlocks lead to price pressure, Starknet is demonstrating resilience:
- High Staking Rate: The total staked supply has reached over 920 million STRK (over 20% of circulating supply)—a high rate for a Layer-2 protocol.
- Long-Term Conviction: Following a recent token unlock, 30 million STRK were staked rather than sold, indicating strong long-term conviction among holders, supported by institutional staking tools.
- Supply Dynamics: With high staking demand and only 4.56 billion out of 10 billion tokens circulating, the liquid supply is low.
Outlook
Analysts suggest that if STRK follows the historical cycles of Zcash, it could see gains exceeding 600%, pushing it towards a $2 target. The sustained institutional engagement, combined with the unique Bitcoin staking model, positions Starknet for major growth and potential movement into the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap, provided the current momentum withstands pending token unlocks.
November 2025, Cryptoniteuae