StarkWare is implementing a company-wide reorganization and cutting staff as it shifts its business model to combat a severe decline in revenue. The move marks a departure from a pure focus on Ethereum-scaling infrastructure toward the development of proprietary, high-revenue products.
CEO Eli Ben-Sasson announced the restructure during a town hall meeting, according to a transcript reviewed by CoinDesk. The company will now operate as two independent business units, aiming to leverage its technical expertise to build products that competitors cannot easily replicate.
A shift in strategy
The strategic pivot follows a sharp downturn in the performance of the Starknet network. Monthly revenue, which reached approximately $6 million in late 2023, has fallen to roughly $48,000 for the first half of April 2026, according to DefiLlama data.
Industry analysts attribute much of this decline to Ethereum’s EIP-4844 upgrade in March 2024, which significantly reduced fee revenue across the Layer-2 ecosystem. While Starknet’s total value locked remains above $200 million, the drop in transaction fees has forced the firm to reevaluate its path to profitability.
"I started in this field in 2013, almost 13 years ago, and I've seen quite a number of winters," Ben-Sasson told employees. "I think what marks this winter is that there's a very clear vacuum in leadership across blockchain."
Ben-Sasson emphasized that StarkWare must now translate its technological advantages into "meaningful revenue" and "meaningful usage." He instructed staff that the firm will prioritize projects with significant earning potential rather than broad, experimental research.
As part of this reorganization, StarkWare is launching a new Applications unit. The division will be led by researcher Avihu Levy, who recently gained attention for publishing a method to make Bitcoin transactions resistant to quantum attacks without requiring a soft fork.
This new unit will focus on products that operate with minimal reliance on external blockchains. By building these tools in-house, the company hopes to secure a more stable financial future despite the ongoing downturn in the broader crypto market.