Starknet Post-Quantum Layer 1 Vote: What STRK Traders Know

Key takeaways

• Starknet's seven-day governance poll closed on Oct 22, 2026 with 93.52% of voting power backing research into an independent post-quantum layer 1.
• The Starknet vote was non-binding, and any actual move away from Ethereum would require a separate binding governance vote.
• StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson hopes to release a draft whitepaper in November 2026, and further governance votes are expected afterward.
• The governance proposal says STRK would remain the native token with no new token planned, and existing Starknet–Ethereum bridges would stay open.
• XPERTRAX data show STRK at $0.0529, down 2.24% over 24 hours, a larger decline than ETH at -1.14% and BTC at -0.72%.

What Starknet voters approved

Starknet's community voted yesterday to back research into turning the network into an independent, post-quantum layer 1 blockchain. According to Cointelegraph, the seven-day poll closed on Thursday, Oct 22, 2026, with 93.52% of voting power in favor. StarkWare said turnout was the highest in Starknet governance history, and that it abstained so the community could decide. For traders holding Starknet (STRK), the key point is what the vote does not do.

The poll was non-binding. It lets StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation proceed with research, and a separate binding governance vote would be required for any real shift. Until then, Starknet keeps operating as an Ethereum layer-2 network. A working group has been set up by StarkWare and the Foundation to examine the transition and draft more detailed technical proposals.

Why the turnout figures differ

Reports disagree on participation, and the disagreement comes from the unit being counted. Cointelegraph, along with CoinCodex and Blockchain Reporter, cites roughly 3,200 votes. The Block, citing StarkWare, says more than 2,800 wallets took part. A KuCoin news flash puts the figure at 3,236 votes, which is close to the Cointelegraph number but more precise. The coverage does not reconcile wallets against votes, so we treat the turnout as a range of roughly 2,800 to 3,200 participants and do not lean on a single number.

One KuCoin flash also says the poll closed on Oct 15. Cointelegraph, The Block and Blockchain Reporter all say the poll opened on Oct 15 and closed on Oct 22, and we follow them. Ben-Sasson first raised the idea on Oct 8, according to both Cointelegraph and The Block, so the whole process from proposal to result took about two weeks.

A modest turnout is relevant for a token holder. A 93.52% margin is lopsided, but it reflects a few thousand participants. Whether that holds up in a binding vote with broader participation is untested.

What the Starknet post-quantum layer 1 plan leaves unchanged

The governance proposal, as Cointelegraph describes it, says STRK would remain the native token, with no new token planned. It also says existing bridges between Starknet and Ethereum would stay open. Those two points matter most to holders, because they suggest the proposal is not designed to force a token swap or strand bridged assets. They are proposal terms, though, not guarantees, and the details could change as the working group develops its technical plans.

The stated motivation is Starknet's dependence on Ethereum for security. Ben-Sasson has called Ethereum's own target of 2029 for becoming quantum-safe "too late," adding that deadlines slip. He has set a 2027 target for making Starknet quantum-resistant. The Block notes that no date has been agreed for any layer 1 transition.

There is a technical tension here. Cointelegraph notes that Starknet already uses hash-based STARK proofs and supports programmable accounts that can adopt post-quantum signatures. But its bridge and data availability infrastructure still rely on Ethereum's upgrade timeline. In our view, that reliance is the strongest argument the team has for independence. It is also the part of the plan that carries the most execution risk, because an independent chain would have to supply security that Ethereum currently provides.

StarkWare's Quantum Hub says it has processed a quantum-resistant transaction on Starknet's live network. Cointelegraph points out that the technology is experimental and has not been audited. A Blockchain Reporter piece also includes a section on validator pushback, but the details of those objections are not established, so we do not weigh them here.

What the market data shows

XPERTRAX data show STRK at $0.0529, down 2.24% over 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) is at $2,400, down 1.14%, and Bitcoin is at $81,524, down 0.72%. Among other layer-2 tokens, Arbitrum is up 0.79% at $0.1821, while Optimism is down 1.84% at $0.1198.

A one-day move does not tell us how the market is reading the vote, and we would not attribute STRK's decline to it. What the numbers do show is that a 93.52% approval did not trigger an obvious relief move in the token, and that other layer-2 tokens are not moving in lockstep with it. That fits a reasonable interpretation: the vote authorizes research, and traders are waiting for details.

For wider context on the economics behind this debate, our earlier pieces on how Ethereum's capacity upgrade could reshape layer-2 economics and why many Ethereum layer 2s struggle to survive cover the pressures that make a move like Starknet's easier to understand.

What to watch next

The next checkpoint is the whitepaper. Ben-Sasson told both Cointelegraph and The Block that the team is starting work on it and hopes to publish a draft for public scrutiny in November 2026, which is next month. The Block says StarkWare expects more governance votes on the potential transition after that. A hoped-for draft is not a committed release date.

• Whitepaper detail: how security, validators, and data availability would work without Ethereum.
• Binding vote terms: whether the token and bridge commitments survive into the final proposal, and how many holders participate.
• Audit status: whether the experimental quantum-resistant technology gets an independent security review.
• Timeline: whether the 2027 quantum-resistance target stays realistic given the dependence on Ethereum's upgrade schedule.

Our view is that STRK is now a governance-and-execution story with no fixed schedule. Traders sizing a position around the whitepaper should plan for a range of outcomes, and our guide to crypto risk management and position sizing is a reasonable starting point. This analysis is not investment advice.

Sources

• Starknet vote post quantum l1 research ethereum (cointelegraph.com)
• Starknet community overwhelmingly backs research into becoming an independent post-quantum Layer 1 (theblock.co)
• Starknet Post-Quantum L1 Research Whitepaper to Be Released in Weeks (kucoin.com)
• Starknet Holders Strongly Support Ethereum Exit and Move to Quantum-Resistant Layer 1 (coincodex.com)
• Starknet Votes 93.52% For Post-Quantum L1 Research (blockchainreporter.net)
• Starknet Voters Approve Research on Post-Quantum Blockchain (kucoin.com)