Starknet introduces $25 million token incentive to reward leading projects

The Starknet Foundation has unveiled its plans to distribute 20 million Starknet (STRK) tokens to the most advanced projects on its network. This initiative is part of the Catalyst program, through which the foundation aims to allocate approximately $25.2 million worth of tokens to the top-performing projects in the ecosystem. Diego Oliva, the CEO of Starknet Foundation, stated that the grants program is intended to accelerate innovation on Starknet’s Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, which is based on zero-knowledge rollup technology. The grants will be categorized into two groups, distinguishing advanced-stage projects from emerging ones. Among the first six projects to receive grants are Ekubo, AVNU, Influence, Realms, Nostra, and ZKX. The Starknet Foundation recognizes the growing importance of web3 gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) as emerging use cases for Starknet, and aims to foster more creative blockchain applications on the network. With over $1.08 billion in total value locked (TVL), Starknet is currently the seventh-largest Ethereum layer 2 network. The foundation recently announced a $5 million seed grants program to support promising teams in their final stages of project development. This initiative aims to provide a “final push” for these projects to launch on Starknet. The foundation also plans to introduce additional grant programs in the future as part of the Catalyst program.