Solana’s public attack on Starknet exposes how billions in “mercenary” volume are artificially pumping network valuations right now
The post Solana’s public attack on Starknet exposes how billions in “mercenary” volume are artificially pumping network valuations right now appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Solana’s verified X account fired a shot on Jan. 14: “Starknet has 8 daily active users, 10 daily transactions, and still somehow has a 1b MC and 15b FDV[…] Send it straight to 0.” The data used in the ‘sh*tpost’ appears to trace back to an April 2024 snapshot, as the FDV figure was wrong. Current CryptoSlate data shows Starknet’s fully diluted valuation around $900 million, not $15 billion. While overshooting the valuation is one thing, the fact that Solana’s official account called for users to “send [Starknet] straight to 0” really highlights where the industry is in 2026. A project that is looking for serious institutional money to move on chain is actively calling for the downfall of a competitor chain (albeit through an ‘intern’ controlled social media account). Still, the broader question holds: how do you measure the gap between what a network is worth and what it actually does? Valuation isn’t usage, but some networks price like they have both. The real challenge lies in separating what’s easy to inflate, such as notional perpetual futures volume and address activity, from what’s harder to fake: fee pressure measured through REV (Real Economic Value), which combines chain fees and MEV tips that users actually pay for execution priority. Related Reading Solana is becoming settlement rail for Visa and JPMorgan but one metric still scares insiders Wyoming’s Frontier launch plus a Wall Street wrapper filing happened fast, and the real institutional bet is on settlement rails. Jan 8, 2026 · Gino Matos The metric stack that matters Market cap is divided by circulating supply, while FDV is divided by total supply. Activity metrics are split into spot DEX volume measuring on-chain swaps and perpetual futures volume, which DefiLlama defines as notional traded volume, including leverage. A trader opening a $100,000…
Filed under: News - @ January 15, 2026 8:52 am