TL;DR
- Starknet’s native token, STRK, starts trading on major exchanges after a massive airdrop to 1.3 million wallets.
- STRK is used for governance, fees, and validation on Starknet, a ZK-Rollup L2 network that boosts Ethereum’s scalability and security.
- STRK’s price is volatile, reaching $5 before dropping to $2, and its fully diluted value is estimated at $35 billion
Starknet’s native token, STRK, has begun trading on centralized exchanges today, following the opening of distribution claims for nearly 1.3 million wallets. The token’s trading debut has been highly anticipated by the cryptocurrency community, with Binance, Bybit, Bitfinex, and OKX among the exchanges supporting the new token.
On February 20, 2024, at 13:00 UTC, Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, initiated spot trading for Starknet (STRK), the native token of the Ethereum layer-2 platform. The exchange introduced four initial spot pairs: STRK/BTC, STRK/USDT, STRK/FDUSD, and STRK/TRY. Additionally, Binance extended support for Starknet’s airdrop distribution to its customers who stake ETH.
Starknet, a ZK-Rollup L2 network, facilitates substantial scaling for decentralized applications (dApps) on Ethereum without sacrificing security. The Starknet ecosystem’s governance token, STRK, is also utilized for transaction fee payments and by network validators.
The airdrop distribution resulted in over 1.3 million wallet addresses receiving a total of 700 million STRK tokens. The beneficiaries of the airdrop encompass Starknet users, Ethereum stakers, Starknet developers, EIP authors, and Protocol guild members.
Following its release, the token experienced a volatile opening, with its price peaking at $5 on Kucoin before falling back to around $2.00. With an initial total supply of 10 billion tokens, the fully diluted value (FDV) of STRK is estimated at $35 billion.
Starknet’s Journey Since Its Launch in November 2021
Starknet was first launched in November 2021. Since its inception, it has accumulated nearly $55 million in total value locked (TVL), as reported by DefiLlama. The Starknet team plans to roll out new programs and opportunities for those who may have missed the initial phase.
Airdrop hunters are individuals who seek to profit from the accumulation of tokens distributed through airdrops, with the expectation that these tokens’ value will appreciate. These professionals employ scripts to aggregate numerous addresses into a select few for efficiency.
In a notable instance from March last year, it was disclosed that airdrop hunters had successfully consolidated tokens worth $3.3 million from the then Arbitrum (ARB) airdrop. They managed to transfer these tokens from 1,496 wallets into merely two wallets under their control.
The launch of STRK trading marks a significant milestone for Starknet and the broader Ethereum ecosystem, bringing increased scalability and efficiency to decentralized applications.
