Starknet CEO Diego Oliva Resigns, James Strudwick to Lead Foundation Forward

The Starknet Foundation has announced the resignation of Diego Oliva, its first CEO, who has served since March 2023.

The Starknet Foundation acknowledged Oliva’s contribution in an official statement. During this time, the foundation achieved major milestones in developing the Starknet ecosystem.

James Strudwick Steps Up as Starknet’s New Executive Director

Throughout his tenure, Oliva led the foundation through several critical projects. These projects included executing the Provisions project and initiating numerous ecosystem development initiatives, such as “DeFi Spring,” Seed Grants, and the Catalyst and Propulsion programs. Under his leadership, the foundation also secured agreements with over 100 infrastructure teams.

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Following the announcement of his departure, Oliva expressed his pride in the foundation’s progress and achievements. He mentioned being part of the team and the Starknet community was an honor.

“I’m extremely proud of the progress and achievements the Foundation has made in close partnership with our Starknet ecosystem builders and partners,” Oliva stated on his X (Twitter) account.

Oliva will stay briefly with the foundation to ensure a smooth transition. This period will be crucial for maintaining momentum and ensuring the continued success of the Starknet ecosystem.

The Starknet Foundation also announced that James Strudwick will take on the leadership role as Starknet’s Executive Director. Strudwick, who joined the foundation in January 2024, is expected to continue driving the growth and adoption of the Starknet ecosystem.

Starknet is an Ethereum layer-2 (L2) that leverages zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup based on the STARK technology. According to Santiment’s data, Starknet has become one of the top five L2 projects in terms of development activity for the last 30 days.

Despite these achievements, Starknet is facing challenges. As revealed by Starkscan data, the platform has experienced a significant drop in active users.

On February 21, the number of active users was 382,606. However, by August 1, this number had notably decreased to 13,177 users.

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Moreover, Starknet’s total value locked (TVL) has declined significantly since its peak in April. As of now, based on DefiLlama data, it stands at $231.7 million. Many attribute the reduced participation in the project’s ecosystem to users’ frustration regarding the changes in the requirements for the STRK token airdrop earlier in February.