Starknet Mainnet Halted Again: Fresh Outage Freezes Ethereum L2 for Over 2 Hours

Key Takeaways

• Starknet, an Ethereum layer-2 system, experienced a significant network halt for over two hours, raising questions about its stability as it progresses into 2026.
• The network, despite processing more than 264 million transactions and having a total value locked of around $840 million, saw all on-chain activities paused, affecting wallets, decentralized applications, and smart contracts.
• This outage follows a previous major incident in September 2025 and a pattern of network interruptions during its journey towards decentralization.
• The market response was limited, with STRK token trading showing marginal increase despite the outage.

WEEX Crypto News, 2026-01-06 10:09:45

Starknet, a layer-2 solution for Ethereum known for its zero-knowledge rollups, recently faced yet another significant outage that halted its mainnet operations for more than two hours. This incident has sparked further doubts about the system’s stability and reliability as it continues to evolve through 2026.

The outage was publicly noted by Starknet’s developers on the social media platform X, where they acknowledged the issue and assured users that their engineering team was actively investigating to restore full functionality swiftly. However, at the initial outset of the incident, no specific cause for the outage was communicated. For just over two hours, block production on Starknet stood at a halt, leaving users unable to process or complete their transactions on this Ethereum layer-2 network.

Despite Strong Metrics, Starknet Halt Stops All On-Chain Activity

Analytics from Starknet’s own block explorer indicate that the network has handled over 264 million transactions since its launch. It has also boasted more than 56,000 active accounts with minimal transaction fees, generally below one cent. The total value locked within the network was approximately $840 million. Despite these robust figures, the recent outage effectively froze all activities across wallets, decentralized applications, and smart contracts during its downtime.

Several minutes after the issue of the halt was publicly recognized, the block production began again. New blocks started appearing, signifying the resumption of operations. Starknet’s design, which enables off-chain transaction batching coupled with cryptographic proofs submitted to Ethereum, is intended to enhance scaling capabilities for decentralized finance, gaming, and broader smart contract utilization. This design ensures the network’s reliance on Ethereum for both settlement and security.

Interruptions and BTCFi Expansion Disruption

Starknet has significantly positioned itself within the Bitcoin-related decentralized finance space, striving to spearhead a bridge known as BTCFi within the Ethereum ecosystem. Nonetheless, the outage momentarily curtailed these aspirations, as developers and users had to wait for the network to return to normal functioning. This incident joins a growing list of disruptions that have challenged Starknet throughout 2025.

Starknet Outage Adds to Growing Pattern of Network Interruptions

The most impactful outage prior to the recent event occurred in September 2025 following a major update known as Grinta, version 0.14.0. This upgrade, which aimed to decentralize the network further by adding multiple sequencers, led to a significant network halt lasting around nine hours. During this time, the network underwent two chain reorganizations, with about an hour’s worth of activity needing to be rolled back, compelling users already in process to resubmit their transactions.

Post-incident analysis disclosed that the failure stemmed from different sequencers operating on inconsistent Ethereum views due to RPC provider issues, which impaired block proposal processes. Additionally, a software bug in Starknet’s state update component exacerbated the situation during transaction reversions, resulting in the need for a manual halt to maintain network correctness.

Earlier in April 2024, Starknet experienced another four-hour outage, where a rounding error led to block reorganizations. The glitch caused transaction capacity maxing out until developers resolved the backlog, allowing normal network operations to recommence.

Transition Towards Decentralization

While the most recent outage was less severe and shorter in duration than the September incident, it is part of a pattern seen as part of Starknet’s ongoing transition to a more decentralized architecture. Such outages typically cause delays or failures in transaction processing, temporary unavailability of funds and services, and downtime affecting applications on the network.

In response to these disruptions, some centralized exchanges temporarily halted STRK deposits and withdrawals as a precautionary measure, although trading might have continued within these platforms. Until now, the market’s reaction to the outage has been fairly subdued. The Starknet token, STRK, was observed trading around $0.089, with a slight upward trajectory of about 1.3% over the previous 24 hours. At the same time, the daily trading volume increased by over 38% to nearly $63.7 million.

However, the STRK token remains significantly lower than its peak in early 2024, when it traded above $4. This downturn reflects broader market conditions and continued concerns about supply and the network’s reliability that go beyond single events.

Future Considerations and Weex’s Perspective

As Starknet strives to stabilize its architecture and functionality, the crypto community and developers might benefit from observing the network’s ability to manage these incidents effectively moving forward. As decentralized systems like Starknet continue establishing themselves further into 2026, the emphasis will remain on achieving robustness and reliability suitable for handling real-world applications securely and efficiently.

From Weex’s standpoint, these developments underline the importance of steady enhancements and vigilance in handling complex decentralized systems, ensuring they are capable of delivering dependable services to all users. Weex, a platform dedicated to offering seamless, secure, and innovative crypto solutions, is committed to operating within this dynamic space, capturing the educational value from such incidents as those seen with Starknet.

FAQ

Как долго продлились прошлые сбои Starknet на основной сети?

Проблемы с основной сетью Starknet ранее длились от нескольких часов до девяти часов, в зависимости от конкретных обстоятельств и сложности устранения неисправностей.

Как такие сбои влияют на пользователей и децентрализованные приложения?

Сбои приводят к задержкам или неудачам в обработке транзакций, временной недоступности средств и сервисов, а также к простою приложений, построенных на Starknet.

Какие меры предпринимаются для предотвращения подобных сбоев в будущем?

Starknet старается улучшать свою архитектуру, добавляя деконцентрацию и новые сценарии для управления сетевыми ресурсами, чтобы снизить вероятность будущих сбоев.

Как пользователям лучше подготовиться к возможным сбоям системы?

Пользователи могут проявить терпение и осторожность, отслеживая обновления от разработчиков Starknet и избегая проведения крупных транзакций во время предполагаемых проблем с сетью.

Как продолжающиеся сбои отразятся на репутации Starknet?

Пока Starknet работает над улучшением своей сети, продолжающиеся сбои могут вызвать опасение по поводу надежности системы, что влияет на общее восприятие проекта в сообществе.