Trading remains one of crypto’s most enduring use cases, and many ecosystem that try to scale trading eventually runs
into the same bottleneck: liquidity is a balance-sheet problem before it’s an execution problem. Ekubo’s “AMM endgame” framing nails this point; the protocols that win are the ones that turn capital into efficient, persistent market inventory.

Staking introduces the opposite force. It strengthens network security, but also crystallizes capital into
non-transferable positions, reducing its ability to stay productive. On Starknet, this tension is now front-and-center
because staking is no longer only about STRK. Starting Q3 2025, Starknet’s staking protocol also supports majoir BTC
assets staked for STRK rewards, and validator staking power is explicitly a blend:
75% STRK and 25% BTC (α = 0.25).

Endur is the bridge between these two realities. It is converting staking positions into yield-bearing assets that can move
through DeFi without giving up their security contribution, and it does that across both STRK and multiple bridgeable
BTC assets.

I. The Native Staking Constraint: Security Is Non-Composable By Default

Native staking is designed to be sticky. On Starknet mainnet, the protocol includes a 7-day withdrawal security lockup
for unstaking. That lock is good for protocol safety, but it also makes staked capital turn into collateral that is kept
away from the DeFi stack. From a market-structure perspective, the impact is predictable: Staked assets stop being
usable as spot liquidity, stop being usable as lending collateral, and stop being usable as LP inventory. This reduces
lending depth, makes DEX books thinner, and forces ecosystem growth to rely more on emissions than on endogenous
balance-sheet expansion. Liquid staking exists because the chain needs both: hard security and fast collateral.

II. Endur’s Primitive: ERC-4626 Staking Vaults With A Withdrawal Queue, Not A “Wrapped Token”

Endur is not just minting an IOU. Endur’s liquid staking system is explicitly built as an ERC-4626 vault with a dedicated withdraw queue contract and a delegator system that manages the actual staking operations on Starknet. That architecture matters because it tells you how liquidity is preserved under stress. Endur’s core mechanical properties are:

  • Exchange-rate accrual (not rebasing). Rewards compound by increasing the exchange rate between xAssets and their underlying (e.g., xSTRK→STRK), while
    balances remain constant.
  • Queue-based withdrawals with explicit state. Withdrawal requests are represented as NFTs that encode queue position and amount, making exits trackable and
    ordered (first-come, first-served).
  • Deposit/withdraw matching to reduce forced unstaking. New deposits are first routed to satisfy withdrawal demand; only surplus is pushed into staking via delegator
    contracts. This is a key design choice because it compresses exit time in normal market conditions by avoiding
    unnecessary unstake operations.
  • Relayer automation with a permissionless fallback. The relayer batches operational actions (allocations, queue processing, unstaking, claim processing) on a cadence
    (documented as every 6–24 hours), while retaining a permissionless claim path if automation fails.
  • Fee model aligned to rewards, not principal. Endur charges no stake/redemption fees, but takes a
    15% performance fee on earned rewards, shared between node operators and the LST.

III. Why Liquid Staking On Starknet Is Not Optional Anymore

Starknet’s BTC staking design turns the network into an explicit “BTC-secured rollup” narrative, but it also creates a
scaling requirement: BTC must become productive inside Starknet DeFi or the staking base becomes a parked balance sheet.

BTC staking is emerging as a primary cross-chain liquidity primitive on Starknet, with curated BTC representations integrated at the protocol level. BTC and STRK together reinforce a dual-staking security model, aligning economic security and network incentives, while BTCFi on Starknet, powered by zk proofs and privacy-preserving execution, becomes significantly more accessible, composable, and capital-efficient.

Endur’s role is to ensure that “BTC staked to secure Starknet” is also “BTC collateral that can power Starknet markets.”
Starknet’s 2025 year-in-review broke down Endur powered liquid staking as the major extension that allows users to stake BTC, receive Endus BTC LSTs, and then deploy them into the money markets keeping the base exposure intact.

IV. The Liquidity Layer In Practice: How Endur Turns Staked Capital Into Market Inventory

Endur only matters if xAssets are deployable across venues that compound liquidity and not just yield.

A. Money Markets: Vesu Turns LSTs Into Borrowing Capacity

The simplest DeFi unlock is: stake → mint LST → deposit as collateral → borrow stablecoins or BTC → redeploy without
selling spot exposure.

Endur’s BTC liquid staking tokens are designed for extended yield generation, enabling lending, borrowing, and looping strategies across Starknet. Through deep integration with Vesu, these BTC LSTs can be actively deployed in Starknet’s money markets, unlocking additional yield via lending, borrowing, and composable DeFi strategies beyond staking alone.

B. DEX Liquidity: Ekubo Makes xAsset/Natives Tradable With Real Depth

LSTs become economically real when they have tight two-sided markets against their underlying.
Ekubo is a primary swap venue for xSTRK and xyBTC. Ekubo’s own thesis is that concentrated liquidity with precision ticks
creates tighter spreads and better execution, effectively transforming a DEX into a highly efficient liquidity layer.x
Pairs like xWBTC/WBTC (and xSTRK/STRK) are strategically important because they provide the entry/exit liquidity required for the entire liquid staking stack to stay “liquid” under load. When those pools are healthy, LST discounts compress faster, leverage risk is reduced, and lending collateral becomes more reliable.

C. Programmatic Yield Strategy: Troves Productizes Low-Management Strategies On Top Of Endur

Most users will not manually manage looped collateral strategies, liquidation buffers, and dynamic LP ranges.
Troves exists precisely to wrap those actions into vaults and one-click strategies. Troves provides products like a levered Endur xWBTC vault (borrowing WBTC to lever xWBTC exposure) and an xWBTC/WBTC Ekubo LP strategy with automated rebalancing, plus an “xSTRK Sensei” loop strategy that routes through Endur and Vesu for a delta-neutral style position. This matters for Starknet’s liquidity layer because automation increases collateral velocity while keeping risk bounded by standardized vault logic rather than ad-hoc user behavior.

V. Validator Distribution: Liquid Staking As Organic Stake Routing

One under-discussed advantage of a liquid staking layer is that it can improve stake distribution without asking retail
users to become delegation experts. Endur’s architecture describes a delegator system with multiple delegator contracts that handle actual staking operations, receiving “excess funds” from the vault and staking STRK/BTC via Starknet’s staking system. That multi-delegator design is not just an implementation detail. It is the mechanism that allows Endur to route stake across a validator set (within its registry constraints) while keeping the user-facing asset liquid and standardized.

VI. The Thesis: Liquid Staking Is Starknet’s Liquidity Backbone

Liquid staking on Starknet has evolved beyond “yield with liquidity” into a coordination layer that converts security capital into usable DeFi liquidity. This shift is already visible at the network level. Starknet now secures over 1.12B STRK staked (22% of circulating supply) and 1200+ BTC staked, supported by 62k+ delegators and 188 validators. At this scale, staking meaningfully anchors network security and defines the capital base available to the ecosystem. BTC staking, in particular, is emerging as a cross-chain liquidity primitive. The distribution across solvBTC, WBTC, tBTC, and LBTC reduces wrapper concentration risk and enables BTC to function as active collateral across Starknet’s money markets rather than a passive bridge asset. The next constraint is no longer adoption—it is usability: how much staked value can be deployed without weakening consensus. This is where liquid staking becomes infrastructure. Endur preserve staking integrity while producing composable liquid staking tokens. Endur’s is also illustrating the same transition with growing numbers. ~$37M TVL, $4.7M in STRK staked, an 342 BTC staked, its xSTRK and BTC LSTs circulate through Starknet DeFi while remaining tied to protocol security. Endur’s liquid staking tokens are deeply integrated across Starknet’s core DeFi stack, including Vesu for lending and borrowing, Ekubo for liquidity provision, and Troves for automated, risk-bounded yield strategies. These integrations allow staked STRK and BTC to remain economically bonded to network security while actively supplying credit, liquidity, and structured yield.

The result is reinforcing network security while liquid staking keeps both assets productive. This architecture
positions Starknet’s BTCFi to compete directly with Bitcoin L1s and EVM-based BTC money markets, not through higher
risk, but through zk-powered efficiency, composability, and sustainable yield. Liquid staking is no longer a feature on Starknet. It is the liquidity backbone the network is being built on.

Disclaimer: Not investment advice, do your own research. Engagement in staking is subject to risk, including risk of
loss. Endur is a third party application built on Starknet, for more information visit
here
.