Crypto
Starknet Gave Back 31% in a Day as the Layer-2 Rally Unwound
STRK fell 30.94% on October 12 to $0.08505, a day after closing at its highest level since December. Arbitrum, Optimism, ZKsync, Celestia and Caldera all fell 8-12%.
Last week's strongest theme in crypto reversed sharply on Monday, October 12. Starknet's STRK, which had more than doubled in four days, fell 30.94% to $0.08505 on $65.5 million of volume. It started the day at $0.1231, near its peak, and dropped in several waves: −7.1% in the 02:00 UTC hour, −7.7% at 13:00 UTC and −9.0% at 22:00 UTC, when it touched $0.082.
The rest of the layer-2 group followed. Arbitrum fell 9.92%, Optimism 8.91%, ZKsync 9.32%, Celestia 8.69% and Caldera's ERA 12.35%. All of them closed at their lowest levels since October 8 or 9, before the rotation began.
Even after the drop, Starknet is still about 77% above its October 8 low of $0.048, and it bounced to about $0.088 early on Tuesday. That's the nature of these rotations: they can give back a third of their gains in a day and still leave a large net move. The level traders had flagged as the breakout point, $0.0625, is still well below the current price. Our guide to layer-2 rollups explains what these networks do, and why their tokens move so much more than ether itself.