Starknet L1 plan Sends STRK Flying on Quantum Hype
Starknet L1 plan talk pumped STRK: the network says it is actively considering becoming its own layer 1 to be fully quantum-resistant by 2027. No vote, no date yet.
Early story. Some claims here are not officially confirmed yet. We update this post as it confirms.
- On October 8, Starknet posted that becoming an L1 "would enable Starknet to become the first fully quantum-resistant network, with 2027 as our target."
- STRK jumped to around $0.07 to $0.073, a roughly nine-month high, though reported gains range from about 20% to 40% depending on source and window.
- Any move would need governance approval, a separate validator set and a migration path that hasn't been published.
in this block
The Starknet L1 plan is the wildest L2 headline of the week. Starknet, the Ethereum scaling network built by StarkWare, said it is "actively considering" becoming its own layer 1 so it can be fully quantum-resistant by 2027. STRK ripped on the news, but nothing has been voted on, designed or scheduled yet.
What actually happened
Starknet wrote on X: "We are actively considering becoming an L1." StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson followed with a thread asking whether going L1 for post-quantum agility is a good or bad idea. He argued that the quantum threat "may be much closer than we think" and that AI's rapid progress in mathematics adds a second risk.
Quick refresher: an L1 is a base chain like Bitcoin or Ethereum that validates and secures its own transactions. A layer 2 bundles transactions into batches and leans on the base chain for security. Starknet has always been the second kind.
His core point is about dependency. As a layer 2, Starknet leans on Ethereum for security, so it can only be as quantum-safe as Ethereum. Ethereum's own roadmap targets core post-quantum infrastructure around 2029, according to Decrypt citing ethereum.org. Ben-Sasson said Starknet needs Ethereum to move "real fast," and that becoming an L1 is one option if it doesn't. Decrypt adds that the Ethereum Foundation formed a dedicated post-quantum team in January, when Drake said "timelines are accelerating," while Bitcoin has made no such commitment, according to Ben-Sasson.
CryptoBriefing reports Ben-Sasson also made the case at the Token2049 conference. He used the phrase "bunker mode," which Decrypt notes was recently popularized by Ethereum researcher Justin Drake.
Why Starknet thinks it can pull this off
StarkWare's quantum-readiness roadmap, published June 30, says STARK proofs rely on collision-resistant hash functions, not elliptic-curve math. That means the proving layer was never built on the cryptography that quantum computers threaten.
It also highlights native account abstraction, which lets contracts become quantum-resistant without breaking changes. StarkWare says users can deploy a post-quantum wallet on Starknet today. Decrypt adds that some elliptic-curve pieces remain, which the roadmap says will be replaced.
The market reaction
Here the numbers split. Decrypt said STRK traded near $0.073 on Friday, up about 20% in 24 hours and more than double the roughly $0.03 it fetched in April, when StarkWare cut staff. CryptoBriefing says estimates vary by source and window, with reported gains from 19% to 40% across October 8 and 9. We're not averaging them.
CryptoBriefing also reports STRK futures open interest rose more than 50%, daily DEX volume on Starknet hit about $33.7 million and network fees reached about $13,685 on October 8, a seven-day high. On Kraken at 06:00 UTC on October 10, STRK sat around $0.0705, inside a 24-hour range of about $0.0670 to $0.0776.
The catch
The Starknet L1 plan is a statement of intent, not a roadmap. Decrypt notes the post doesn't say how existing apps and users would move over. CryptoBriefing stresses that any transition requires governance approval, serious technical design and an entirely new validator setup to secure the chain.
Going independent also means Starknet takes full responsibility for its own security instead of borrowing Ethereum's. That's a big trade-off for a network whose main pitch has been Ethereum alignment. It also raises an awkward question for the L2 world, which has already seen exits like the Blast shutdown and the Abstract shutdown for very different reasons.
No quantum computer can break Bitcoin or Ethereum cryptography today, and experts disagree on when one might. CryptoBriefing's bull case is that hitting a 2027 target would make Starknet an early mover ahead of Ethereum's 2029 timeline. The bear case is that it would trade Ethereum's battle-tested security for a brand-new validator set.
What to do as a reader
Separate the narrative from the plan. Until there's a governance proposal with a timeline, the Starknet L1 plan is a trading catalyst, and leveraged positioning after a 50% open-interest jump can unwind fast.
If you hold STRK or use Starknet apps, watch for an official proposal, details on how assets and apps would migrate, and any validator or staking design. For more on how base layers evolve upgrades, see our Base Cobalt upgrade explainer. Nothing here is investment advice.
Not financial advice. DYOR, ser.
