TheBlock
Starknet has launched strkBTC, a new bitcoin-based asset that enables shielded balances and confidential transfers on its ZK-rollup network. The asset works as a bitcoin wrapper — users bring BTC exposure onto Starknet rather than modifying anything at the Bitcoin base layer itself.
The significance here is architectural: zero-knowledge proofs allow strkBTC holders to transact without exposing balances or transfer amounts on-chain, a privacy property Bitcoin's native UTXO model has never natively offered at scale. For the growing cohort of institutional and privacy-conscious holders, that's a meaningful upgrade in how BTC can be used in DeFi and payments contexts.
Starknet continues to position its ZK stack as infrastructure for assets beyond ETH — strkBTC is the clearest signal yet that the network is actively competing for bitcoin liquidity alongside the broader L2 ecosystem.
WuBlockchain
CoinDesk
Crypto Capital Venture