StarkWare, the company behind the L2 network Starknet, will lay off some staff and reorganize into two business divisions. This was announced by the project’s CEO, Eli Ben-Sasson.

I am sharing here a message I shared with the StarkWare team following things I said at an All Hands meeting:

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StarkWare is adapting its strategy, with a clear goal – to lead blockchain.

So far, we’ve secured our position as technology leaders: we built the best ZK…

— Eli Ben-Sasson | Starknet.io (@EliBenSasson) April 13, 2026

He did not disclose the scale or timeline of the layoffs but emphasized that these steps would help StarkWare return to a startup model and more quickly achieve product-market fit.

According to Ben-Sasson, the optimization will make the structure "more agile." StarkWare will take full control over the proof stack (Cairo, Sierra, quantum-safe STARK cryptography), reducing its reliance on external L1s and third-party applications.

“We have created the best stack for scaling layer one, but the infrastructure is not enough. Applications demonstrate the power of the technology, but we are not operating at full capacity. We are capable of more. […] To achieve this, we must change how StarkWare operates,” he wrote.

New Structure

As part of the restructuring, StarkWare will create two divisions. The first, focused on applications and revenue, will be led by current CPO Avihu Levi. The second, the revamped Starknet development, will be overseen by current product head Tom Brand, who will also become the general manager.

Levi recently proposed a method for quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions without a soft fork and will now focus on developing commercially successful products based on the company's technology stack.

Ben-Sasson also announced other personnel changes:

  • Chief Financial Officer Ran Grinshtein will now oversee human resources, security, and IT;
  • Core network development head Gideon Kempfer will transition to chief architect;
  • Chief Operating Officer Oren Katz has resigned but will continue in his role until the end of April;
  • The legal department will remain under the leadership of Catherine Kirkpatrick Boss.

Declining Revenues

The structural changes come amid a sharp decline in the project's financial performance. While Starknet's revenue reached $6 million per month at the end of 2023, the total for the first half of 2026 was only about $48,000.

Source: DefiLlama.

This decline partly reflects broader trends in the crypto industry. Starknet's competitors have also suffered following the activation of the Dencun update, which significantly reduced L2 fee revenues.

At the time of writing, the project’s TVL stands at $241 million, down from a peak of $330 million in January 2026.

It’s worth noting that in mid-March, Crypto.com and Algorand announced large-scale layoffs. Since the beginning of the year, similar actions have been taken by Messari, OP Labs, Polygon, and Mantra.