{"id":244988,"date":"2026-05-13T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T06:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:30:07","slug":"starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/","title":{"rendered":"Starknet Launches strkBTC, a Privacy-Enabled Bitcoin Wrapper Built on STRK20"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/\">Starknet Launches strkBTC, a Privacy-Enabled Bitcoin Wrapper Built on STRK20<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/\">https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-13 06:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"unchainedcrypto.com\">unchainedcrypto.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                                strkBTC lets bitcoin holders toggle between public and shielded states on Starknet, with viewing-key compliance for regulators and a roadmap toward a trustless OP_CAT bridge.                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                            Posted May 13, 2026 at 5:58 am EST.                         <\/p>\n<p>Starknet<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> launched <\/span>strkBTC<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on Tuesday, a bitcoin-backed asset that gives holders optional privacy on the Ethereum Layer 2 network. It is the first asset built on <\/span>STRK20<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the new privacy framework that shipped with Starknet\u2019s <\/span>Shinobi<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> upgrade on <\/span>April 21<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The token is backed <\/span>1:1<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span>BTC<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> locked on the Bitcoin base layer and redeemable at any time. STRK20 lets users toggle between a public mode, which behaves like any other ERC20 on Starknet, and a shielded mode, which hides balances and transfer amounts using zero-knowledge proofs. Users can move between the two states from within their wallet, with <\/span>Xverse<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span>Ready<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among the first wallets to support the asset.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">This story is an excerpt from the <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Unchained Daily newsletter<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe here to get these updates in your email for free<\/p>\n<p>\t<iframe src=\"https:\/\/embeds.beehiiv.com\/b90d29f0-b8b7-4dc7-999b-7611f1fda45c?slim=true\" data-test-id=\"beehiiv-embed\" height=\"52\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"margin: 0; border-radius: 0px !important; background-color: transparent;\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-8=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-17=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When a user shields strkBTC, their viewing key is shared with an independent third-party auditor that can grant scoped access to a single user\u2019s activity in response to a lawful regulatory request, without compromising the broader network\u2019s privacy. <\/span>StarkWare<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> describes the design as <\/span>\u201cconfidentiality on by default, compliance available when required.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>StarkWare<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> CEO and <\/span>Zcash<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> co-founder <\/span>Eli Ben-Sasson<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> called it <\/span>\u201cprivate digital cash, the way it should be.\u201d<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> StarkWare has also published a quantum-safe Bitcoin scheme that requires no protocol changes, part of a broader strategy to turn bitcoin into a productive asset on Starknet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The launch lands against a backdrop of rising privacy demand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blockchain security firm <\/span>CertiK<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recorded <\/span>34 verified physical attack incidents<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> globally in 2026 through early May, a <\/span>41%<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> increase from the same period in 2025,&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starknet Launches strkBTC, a Privacy-Enabled Bitcoin Wrapper Built on STRK20 https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/starknet-launches-strkbtc-a-privacy-enabled-bitcoin-wrapper-built-on-strk20\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-13 06:00:00&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/unchainedcrypto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/strkBTC.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244991,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244988\/revisions\/244991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}