Starknet Launches Bitcoin Staking on Mainnet: September 30, 2025

Starknet, a zero-knowledge-proof layer-2 solution for Ethereum, is set to launch its Bitcoin staking feature on its mainnet at the end of this month.

Key Takeaways

Launch Date: Bitcoin staking on Starknet's mainnet will go live on September 30, 2025.
Staking Overview: Bitcoin staking will utilize a power weight of 0.25, giving Bitcoin a 25% consensus dominance while 75% will come from STRK.
Enhanced Flexibility: The unstaking period has been reduced from 21 days to just 7 days for easier management.
Community Support: The rollout is backed by a governance proposal that received over 93% approval from the community.
Tokenized Assets: Direct staking will include wrapped assets like WBTC, LBTC, and SolvBTC, supporting broader DeFi initiatives.
Market Growth: The total value locked in Bitcoin's DeFi protocols has exceeded $8.4 billion, showcasing significant growth.

Bitcoin Staking In DeFi

The Starknet team is excited to announce that Bitcoin staking will officially be available on the Ethereum layer-2 network’s mainnet starting September 30, 2025. This release is a significant step in the ongoing growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin. Starknet views this launch as “the final missing piece of the BTCfi campaign,” enhancing its capabilities and offerings.

BTC Staking on Starknet

Starknet is playing a vital role in the expansion of BTCfi on its platform, with Bitcoin staking set to have a power weight of 0.25. This arrangement means Bitcoin will hold a consensus dominance of 25%, while the remaining 75% will come from the STRK token. Validators and builders will have the opportunity to deploy Bitcoin delegation pools when this upgrade goes live, allowing holders to start earning rewards as of September 30.

To facilitate a smoother staking experience, Starknet has reduced the unstaking period from 21 days to just 7 days, providing users greater flexibility.

Bitcoin's Expanding DeFi Market

The introduction of Bitcoin staking follows a successful governance proposal that garnered over 93% approval from the Starknet community. With this new feature, Bitcoin holders will be able to stake their Bitcoin on the Starknet network, thereby contributing to its security while earning rewards.

The upgrade will not only introduce novel Bitcoin staking but will also support various tokenized Bitcoin assets or wrapped representations. This means that the direct staking initiative will launch alongside wrapped assets like WBTC, LBTC, and SolvBTC.

Starknet’s BTC staking feature aligns with the efforts of other protocols like Babylon and Stacks, aiming to allow users to leverage their idle Bitcoin for rewards across the decentralized finance landscape. According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked in DeFi protocols associated with Bitcoin has recently reached an all-time high of over $8.4 billion, demonstrating more than an 8% increase in the past 24 hours. Most of the growth has been seen within the Babylon restaking protocol. Other notable BTCfi protocols include Lombard Finance, Threshold Network, Lightning Network, and Solv Protocol.