The Starknet network carried 7.31 times ZKsync Era's transactions in the 30 days to the mid-October close. On ZKsync vs Starknet, Starknet is the better ZK rollup for users and stakers, with more activity and a higher L2BEAT stage. ZKsync Era is the better pick for Solidity developers, and it holds almost twice Starknet's bridged ether.
Value secured tells a narrower story than the transaction count. Starknet held $593.4 million at the mid-October close against ZKsync Era's $302.9 million, only 1.96 times as much, and about half of Starknet's figure is STRK itself. Take each chain's own token out and Starknet's lead grows to 2.36 times, because ZK makes up an even larger share of ZKsync Era's total.
ZKsync vs Starknet at a Glance
Metric | ZKsync Era | Starknet |
Proofs | STARKs wrapped in a SNARK (trusted setup) | STARKs, no trusted setup |
Smart contracts | EVM-compatible, Solidity | CairoVM, Cairo |
Gas token | ETH | STRK |
L2BEAT stage | Stage 0 | Stage 1 |
Value secured, mid-October close | $302.9M | $593.4M |
Transactions, 30 days to mid-October | 586,731 | 4,286,537 |
On Phemex | Perpetual delisted, spot on a delisting notice | STRK perpetual, listed again in mid-October |
What Is ZKsync?
ZKsync Era is the public Ethereum rollup built by Matter Labs, one of the ZK rollups that solve Ethereum's inefficiencies by proving transactions off the main chain. It pays gas in ETH and is the flagship of the Elastic Network, which ZKsync's docs list at 12 mainnet chains with Era among them.
ZK, its governance token, isn't needed to pay fees. ZKsync Lite is a different and older chain, and Matter Labs stopped its block production in May 2026, so older ZKsync figures can mix the two.
What Is Starknet?
Starknet is the ZK rollup StarkWare built on Ethereum, and developers write its contracts in Cairo, its own smart contract language. STRK pays for gas and staking. Staking rewards mint new STRK, so the token contract on Ethereum counted 10.18 billion by mid-October, above the 10 billion most listings print.
That gap is the subject of why Starknet listings show a 10B supply cap, our explainer on how that round number went stale.
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said in early October 2026 that the team is "considering several options, including transitioning to L1" to guard against quantum computers, according to Forklog. Starknet still settles on Ethereum, and Forklog's report gives no timetable for a move.
How Do ZKsync and Starknet Differ?
The two chains split on proofs, on contract language and on how much power their operators keep.
STARKs vs SNARKs
Starknet proves its blocks with STARKs alone, while ZKsync Era wraps its STARKs in a SNARK for efficiency. That wrapper carries a cost, because SNARKs need a trusted setup, a ceremony whose secret data must be destroyed afterwards. L2BEAT's Starknet page describes STARKs as relying only on hashes, which it says keeps them secure even against quantum computers.
Smart Contracts and Gas
ZKsync Era runs its own EraVM, and its EVM bytecode interpreter lets unmodified Solidity and Vyper contracts deploy without recompiling. Its gas token is ETH, so you can start transacting with the same asset you bridged from Ethereum.
Starknet asks developers to write in Cairo, and since its v0.14.0 upgrade every transaction sets its fee limit in STRK, according to Starknet's fee documentation.
Security Stages on L2BEAT
L2BEAT's stages framework scores how far a rollup has moved from the control of a few entities toward control by code. It rates Starknet Stage 1 and ZKsync Era Stage 0.
On Starknet a regular upgrade waits 8 days, which leaves users 7 days to exit, and a Security Council minority can step in as the fallback proposer. ZKsync Era's regular upgrades wait 5 days, but L2BEAT notes that its operator can still censor withdrawals by switching on a transaction filter with no delay.
Starknet's page carries its own warning, since L2BEAT says a single key can upgrade critical contracts there in a way that could cost users all their funds.
Which Network Is Used More?
Starknet is the busier chain by a wide margin, logging 4.29 million transactions over the 30 days to mid-October against about 587,000 on ZKsync Era. The average Starknet transaction bundles 2.37 user operations, so counting operations widens the gap to 17.3 times. The 7.31 figure uses transactions, the stricter count.
The value figures in the table are what most sites call Starknet TVL and ZKsync TVL, and L2BEAT reports them as total value secured. Among the Ethereum layer 2 solutions L2BEAT tracks, 11 are ZK rollup projects, and in mid-October Starknet ranked third of them by value secured while ZKsync Era ranked fifth.
The 4.086 billion STRK in Starknet's Ethereum bridge were worth $302.2 million at the close, 50.9% of Starknet's total. ZKsync Era's 10.82 billion circulating ZK came to $179.4 million, 59.2% of its own total, which leaves $291.2 million against $123.5 million once both tokens come out.
Ether runs the other way. ZKsync Era holds 35,110 ETH against 17,840 ETH in Starknet's bridge, 1.97 times as much, and both on-chain balances match L2BEAT's figures to within 0.0004%.
Method: transactions are L2BEAT's daily counts summed over the 30 days from mid-September to mid-October. Value is L2BEAT's point at the mid-October close, priced with CoinGecko and without restricted real-world-asset tokens, which is why some sites put ZKsync Era near $2 billion. ZKsync Era holds $1.744 billion of those tokens and Starknet $11 million.
Do ZKsync and Starknet Provide Privacy by Default?
Neither chain is private by default, because both publish the data behind every state change to Ethereum and anyone can trace your balance or your transfers. The "ZK" in ZK rollup refers to the validity proofs that show each batch was computed correctly.
Starknet has added opt-in privacy. Its v0.14.2 upgrade went live on mainnet in April 2026 with the base layer for STRK20 and for strkBTC, a shielded bitcoin asset. STRK20 lets any ERC-20 token on Starknet move privately through a shared privacy pool that users deposit into and withdraw from.
ZKsync keeps privacy off its public chain. Prividium runs separate permissioned chains for institutions, where users transact privately while operators keep visibility for compliance and post proofs to Ethereum.
ZKsync vs Starknet: Staking and Token Supply
Starknet staking runs at the protocol level, under rules set out in Starknet's staking docs. Validators need at least 20,000 STRK, delegators can stake STRK or bitcoin, and bitcoin counts at a 0.25 weight in staking power.
Rewards arrive as newly minted STRK, and unstaking triggers a 7-day lockup with no rewards. The protocol is in the second of four planned phases, each adding duties for validators.
ZK staking is a paused governance pilot. The TPP-12 proposal passed an on-chain vote in late 2025 and set a 37.5 million ZK capped minter for rewards of up to 10% a year, paid only to holders who delegate to active delegates. Its first season ran from February to May 2026, and its second was paused in May 2026. The minters expire at the end of December 2026.
Supply rules split the same way. ZK has a 21 billion cap that a governance upgrade can raise, according to the ZK token docs, and its capped minters had issued 15.44 billion ZK by mid-October.
STRK unlocks up to 127 million tokens on the 15th of each month through 15 March 2027, per the STRK token docs, on top of the new supply staking mints.
ZKsync vs Starknet Price Performance
STRK has held up far better than ZK in 2026. STRK closed mid-October at $0.07396 on CoinGecko, down 6.75% from its 31 December 2025 close of $0.07931, while ZK fell 43.41% from $0.02931 to $0.01658 over the same stretch.
Both tokens rallied into mid-October. Over the 30 days to that close, STRK rose 165.05% and ZK 85.63%, each measured from its own close 30 days earlier.
What Is the Price Outlook for STRK and ZK?
Supply is the dated driver for both tokens. STRK's next scheduled unlock lands on 15 November 2026, and ZK's investor and team tokens can unlock up to 0.8% of supply each month until June 2028. For scenarios beyond those dates, our Starknet price prediction for 2026-2030 sets out the cases for STRK.
Is ZKsync Better Than Starknet?
For most users and traders, Starknet is the better choice. It leads on activity and on L2BEAT's stage, its staking runs at the protocol level, and STRK has lost far less than ZK in 2026.
ZKsync Era is the better choice for a team whose code is already in Solidity, since Ethereum bytecode runs there unchanged.
Each side carries a dated risk. Starknet's value leans on STRK, whose monthly unlocks run until March 2027, and its CEO has floated leaving Ethereum for a layer 1 of its own. ZKsync Era is still Stage 0, its token cap can rise by governance vote, and Phemex's ZK markets are winding down.
How to Trade ZKsync and Starknet on Phemex
Phemex listed the STRK/USDT perpetual again in mid-October 2026 after delisting the old contract in August 2026, and it offers up to 50x leverage with funding every four hours.
ZK has no live perpetual on Phemex after an August 2026 delisting notice, and a September 2026 notice ended ZK margin trading and put ZK/USDT spot on course for delisting at a later date.
Open a Phemex account, then finish identity verification and turn on two-factor authentication.
Deposit USDT into your futures account, since the STRK perpetual settles in USDT.
Find STRK/USDT on the futures page and choose a leverage level well under the 50x maximum.
Place a limit or market order and attach a stop-loss at the price where you want out.
Check the funding rate before you hold a position through the next four-hourly funding.
Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin. On the day of the mid-October close the STRK perpetual fell 14.48% from its previous close to $0.07404, in line with CoinGecko's $0.07396. That was the weakest one-day move among the 137 Phemex perpetuals that recorded one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Starknet EVM compatible?
Starknet isn't EVM compatible, because developers write its smart contracts in Cairo for the CairoVM. Solidity contracts don't deploy there as they are, while ZKsync Era runs Ethereum bytecode through an interpreter without recompiling.
Does ZKsync have a token?
ZKsync's token is ZK, a governance token deployed on ZKsync Era with a 21 billion supply cap that a governance upgrade can raise. You pay fees on ZKsync Era in ETH, so you don't need ZK to use the chain.
Can you stake ZKsync?
ZK staking exists only as a paused governance pilot. The TPP-12 vote in late 2025 created it with rewards of up to 10% a year for holders who delegate to active delegates. Its first season ended in May 2026, while Starknet staking runs at the protocol level.
Which chain secures more value, Starknet or ZKsync Era?
Starknet does on L2BEAT's default count, with roughly twice ZKsync Era's value at the mid-October close, though about half of Starknet's total is its own STRK token. ZKsync Era holds more bridged ether, close to double Starknet's balance.
Is Starknet leaving Ethereum to become a layer 1?
Starknet still settles on Ethereum. In early October 2026 StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said the team is weighing several options to guard against quantum computing, and a move to layer 1 is one of them.
Bottom Line
Starknet wins on the chain and on the token, yet the one lead ZKsync Era keeps is the figure no token rally can inflate. An ether balance doesn't move with STRK or ZK, so ZKsync Era's larger one says more about where outside money parks than either native token can.
Until STRK's monthly unlocks end in March 2027, watch if Starknet's activity lead turns into ether deposits, the test its transaction lead hasn't passed.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
