Blockchain technology company StarkWare has just announced plans for a massive workforce reduction and restructuring to shift towards a strategy of generating revenue directly from its products, rather than focusing solely on zero-knowledge infrastructure as before. This information was Chia by CEO and co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson during a company-wide meeting earlier this week, according to transcripts accessed by The Block . This move reflects a significant wave of change in the crypto industry in 2026, as many infrastructure companies are forced to find sustainable business models after a period of fierce market competition.
According to internal Chia , StarkWare has not disclosed the number of affected employees or a specific timeline, but the downsizing is XEM as necessary for the company to return to a "startup mindset," accelerate product-market fit, and shorten time to market. Affected employees will receive emails inviting them for private discussions with management and will be supported in severing their employment beyond legal requirements in many countries. This is a familiar trend in the blockchain industry recently, as Layer 2 projects must optimize costs to survive in the new market cycle.
CEO Eli Ben-Sasson emphasized that StarkWare needs to “move faster,” and a lean team will give the company greater flexibility in product development. The company also announced it will take control of the entire “blockchain proving stack,” including the Cairo programming language, the Sierra system, and the STARK cryptography technology, which is resistant to quantum computing. This strategy aims to reduce reliance on Layer 1 blockchains and external application development teams, while giving StarkWare control over the entire technology value chain .
The management stated that the company will shift its focus from “doing many things well” to “doing fewer things but doing them excellently,” prioritizing products with high revenue potential that can only be built on StarkWare’s proprietary technology platform. This reflects a major shift in the industry: instead of simply providing tools for the ecosystem, infrastructure companies are entering a race to build applications directly to generate revenue.
During the restructuring process, StarkWare will Chia into two main business units. The revenue-generating applications unit will be led by current CPO Avihu Levy, who will Vai as CEO. Levy recently gained attention for proposing a method to make Bitcoin transactions resistant to quantum computing without the need for soft Fork, demonstrating a strategic direction towards expanding into highly practical applications. The second unit, the Starknet development division, will be restructured and led by Tom Brand to accelerate the development of the Layer 2 ecosystem.
Simultaneously, a series of senior management changes were announced. CFO Ran Grinshtein will take on additional responsibilities for finance, human resources, security, and IT. Core engineering head Gideon Kaempfer becomes chief architect, reporting directly to the CEO. The legal department continues to be led by legal counsel Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos . COO Oren Katz has requested to leave the company but will remain until the end of April to support the transition process.
