Starknet's strkBTC Live with ZK Privacy, Federation Bridge as BTC Holds $80.8K

Starknet launched strkBTC on May 12, 2026, the first STRK20 asset enabling optional ZK-shielded Bitcoin balances, confidential transfers, and compliance via viewing keys, backed 1:1 by BTC through a five-party non-custodial federation (Twinstake, NEAR Intents, Luganodes, UTXO, Xverse). This follows the May 1 Shinobi Phase 4 upgrade introducing native privacy and Bitcoin support, plus May 7 governance naming the federation and a roadmap to trustless OP_CAT bridging. Ecosystem momentum includes Loot Survivor's 100M txns, $50M Ready Card spend, eight new projects; CertiK notes 34 privacy incidents YTD (+41%), with 80% institutions eyeing 2-5% crypto allocations as BTC nears $80,800.