Starknet Opened STRK Claims to Nearly 1.3 Million Addresses

Starknet opened claims for its native STRK token at 12:00 UTC on February 20, 2024, beginning the Ethereum layer-two network’s first community distribution while exchanges made the asset available for trading.

The Starknet Foundation described the first Provisions round as an allocation of more than 700 million STRK to nearly 1.3 million eligible addresses. A contemporaneous report from The Block gave the more precise program figures as 728 million STRK and 1.297 million eligible wallets, equal to 7.28% of the token’s stated 10 billion initial supply.

The distinction between an allocation and a completed distribution mattered. February 20 opened a four-month claim window; it did not establish that every eligible address had claimed its allotment. The Foundation said unclaimed tokens after June 20, 2024 would return to the program’s pool for possible future distributions.

A distribution extending beyond Starknet users

Eligibility reached beyond people who had transacted directly on Starknet. The Foundation included qualifying Starknet and StarkEx users, Starknet developers and community contributors, certain Ethereum developers and stakers, members of the Protocol Guild, authors of Ethereum Improvement Proposals and selected contributors to non-crypto open-source projects.

The categories reflected Starknet’s dependence on a broader technical stack. Starknet executes transactions outside Ethereum’s base layer and submits validity proofs to Ethereum for settlement. Rewarding some Ethereum and open-source contributors therefore recognized infrastructure and public-goods work that supported the network even when recipients had not been conventional Starknet users.

Eligibility was not universal. The Foundation’s February 20 claim instructions excluded U.S. persons and people or entities subject to specified sanctions restrictions. Its user criteria also depended on historical snapshots and thresholds. For qualifying Starknet users, the published rules included more than five transactions, activity across at least three months, at least $100 of transaction volume and a balance of at least 0.005 ETH on November 15, 2023.

Those conditions had already produced complaints from users who believed their activity should have qualified. The verified record establishes the criteria and eligible-address count, but it does not establish that the methodology captured every genuine user or excluded every address controlled by the same person.

STRK became a market instrument

The distribution coincided with STRK’s transition into exchange trading. Kraken announced on February 20 that funding and trading were live for STRK against the U.S. dollar and euro. The Block reported that several other centralized exchanges planned to open markets after satisfying their liquidity requirements.

That change was consequential because STRK had existed before it became broadly transferable. Starknet’s November 2022 announcement said the token had been deployed on Ethereum but was not offered for sale. On February 20, 2024, eligible recipients could receive liquid tokens while exchange order books began producing market prices.

No single event-day price is used here. Early quotations varied by venue and minute, some markets opened later than others, and thin initial order books made isolated highs or lows poor measures of a consolidated value. Exchange notices verify availability, not a uniform opening price, aggregate volume or closing valuation.

Decentralization remained a plan, not a completed result

The Foundation identified three intended roles for STRK: transaction fees, staking and governance. Distribution broadened potential ownership and voting participation, but token availability alone did not prove that Starknet’s operation had become decentralized on February 20. Sequencing, protocol upgrades, governance implementation and the concentration of remaining supply were separate questions.

The supply schedule was especially important. Contemporaneous reporting said approximately 1.314 billion STRK allocated to early contributors and investors was scheduled to unlock on April 15, 2024—less than two months after public claims and trading began. That prospective increase was known on February 20 and framed concerns about dilution and insider alignment; it was not an event-day transfer.

Later context

On February 22, 2024, StarkWare revised that schedule after criticism. The new plan reduced the April 15 unlock to 64 million STRK and introduced gradual monthly releases. That subsequent decision does not change what was knowable on February 20: Starknet had opened a large, unusually broad community allocation, STRK had entered liquid markets, and the network’s economic governance had become a public test rather than only a design proposal.