Starknet launches $25M token incentive for top projects

This marks the first installment of Starknet’s Catalyst program, aiming to incentivize blockchain development on the network.

The Starknet Foundation will distribute 20 million Starknet (STRK) tokens to the most advanced projects on the network.

As part of its new Catalyst program, the Starknet Foundation will distribute approximately $25.2 million worth of Starknet tokens to the 21 best-performing projects in the ecosystem, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

The program has chosen to reward the top user-facing protocols based on multiple factors, which were weighed by the Stark Foundation together with an independent third-party, according to Diego Oliva, the CEO of Starknet Foundation. Oliva told Cointelegraph:

“We looked at a range of metrics with varying weights such as Total Value Locked, Fees Generated, Active Users, External Funding, Security Audits as well as several other metrics.”

The grants program aims to accelerate innovation on Starknet’s Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution based on zero-knowledge rollup technology. The grants will be divided into two categories separating advanced-stage projects from emerging projects building on the network.

The first six best-performing projects that qualified for the grants include Ekubo, a token launch platform, AVNU, a DeFi protocol with gasless trading, Influence, a fully on-chain grand strategy game, Realms, an on-chain gaming universe, Nostra, a DeFi protocol with an upcoming crypto super app, and ZKX, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange.

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Web3 gaming continues to be one of the leading emerging use cases for Starknet, for which the network will continue building high-speed infrastructure with low transaction fees. According to Oliva:

“Starknet has rolled out and will continue to roll out a series of upgrades focused on improving transaction speeds, reducing latency and transaction costs. This benefits on-chain games as well as DeFi applications, which is another group of applications that are seeing a lot of success of Starknet.”

Beyond gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi), Oliva hopes to see the grants program spark more creative blockchain use cases on the network.

Starknet is the seventh-largest Ethereum layer 2, with over $1.08 billion in total value locked TVL and a 2.32% market share, according to L2beat. Ethereum layer-2 networks hold over $46 billion in cumulative TVL.

The new funding program for developers comes three weeks after the Starknet Foundation announced a $5 million seed grants program aiming to support at least 200 promising teams with $25,000 USD Coin (USDC) each, offering a “final push” to help final-stage projects launch on Starknet.

The Starknet Foundation is also planning future grant programs within the Catalyst program’s framework.