Starknet to Launch Privacy Bitcoin Asset strkBTC in May 2026

Starknet Foundation's Vice President of Growth, Damian Chen, announced at the 'Bitcoin 2026' conference that the privacy-focused Bitcoin asset, strkBTC, will officially launch on May 12. According to Foresight News, strkBTC is designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with Bitcoin and is governed through a multi-signature approach involving UTXO, Twinsnake, Luganodes, and Xverse, with a third-party asset screening mechanism to prevent prohibited or sanctioned assets from entering the privacy pool. Once users transfer Bitcoin across chains to Starknet, it enters a privacy pool where all transactions and transfers are completely invisible to external observers. During withdrawal, users can opt to send funds to one or multiple new addresses, with external observers only able to see funds entering the bridge contract and exiting the cross-chain contract, without tracking the intermediate paths. The privacy pool employs cryptographic credential mechanisms, allowing users to hold view keys that decrypt their transaction records, which can be presented to tax authorities or law enforcement for compliance audits. Chen highlighted that personal attacks on crypto holders increased by 75% in 2025 compared to the previous year, with France experiencing 41 crypto-related kidnapping cases this year. AI tools can now associate on-chain addresses with real identities at a cost of just a few dollars within seconds, achieving 90% accuracy. Current privacy options, such as privacy coins, centralized exchange coin mixing, and mixers, have significant flaws. He stated that strkBTC is currently a trusted wrapped asset, with plans to upgrade to a trustless bridge implemented by BitVM, aiming for native Bitcoin verification on Starknet after completing STARK verification. Additionally, the team is exploring the possibility of making strkBTC resistant to quantum attacks, with specific plans to be announced soon.