StarkWare — the Israel-based team behind Starknet’s zero-knowledge layer-2 tech — has announced layoffs as it pivots from pure infrastructure development toward a revenue-first strategy. In a post on X on April 13, 2026, co-founder and CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said the eight-year-old company must “move fast” and become leaner to pursue a sustainable path forward. “Our new strategy requires that we move fast, and we’re too big and too inefficient for that,” he wrote, adding that the change will be “dramatic” for those who remain. He did not disclose the exact size of the cuts. What’s changing - StarkWare is consolidating its workforce into two “purpose-focused units” responsible for business development, engineering, product and go-to-market work. The aim is to “do fewer things excellently” and find product-market fit through targeted experimentation — in Ben-Sasson’s words, “a bit like going back to startup mode.” - The firm, which has raised $287 million across eight funding rounds, is best known for Starknet, an Ethereum L2 that uses zero-knowledge proofs to scale transactions and add privacy-focused features (February saw a “private Bitcoin” implementation on Starknet with Zcash-like functionality). Market context and metrics - On-chain activity for Starknet has been modest: DefiLlama shows around $3,500 in chain revenue over the past day, compared with roughly $89,000 for Base (Coinbase’s L2) over the same period. - Starknet’s native token traded near $0.03 on Monday, down about 75% over the past year per CoinGecko. Industry-wide trend toward cost cuts and commercialization StarkWare’s move follows a wave of cost-cutting and strategy pivots across crypto infrastructure firms. Optimism recently disclosed 20 layoffs as it trims overhead to speed decision-making. Polygon Labs shifted focus to real-world payments after a $250 million acquisition spree and then cut roughly 30% of staff (about 60 people). Crypto.com reduced its workforce by roughly 12% (~180 employees), while Block Inc. earlier this year cut around 4,000 roles. What to watch StarkWare’s new direction centers on monetization and tighter product focus; whether the company can translate its technical leadership in ZK proofs into sustainable revenue will be the key question for investors, developers and the broader Ethereum scaling ecosystem. Decrypt has reached out to StarkWare for comment. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news