Nostra

Nostra is a non-custodial DeFi protocol built on StarkNet, Ethereum's zero-knowledge rollup. Founded in July 2022, the project has grown into StarkNet's largest decentralized finance application by total value locked, consolidating lending, borrowing, swapping, bridging, a native stablecoin, and liquid staking into one application it markets as the "crypto super app." Its governance token, NSTR, is deployed across five networks — including Solana — extending the protocol's reach beyond its primary StarkNet foundation.

Core Products

Money Market (Lending and Borrowing)

Nostra's lending protocol lets users deposit assets like ETH, USDC, and DAI to earn variable interest, or post collateral and borrow against it without a trusted intermediary. The protocol uses tokenized representations of supply and debt positions, giving the system full composability with the broader StarkNet DeFi stack.

Interest rates use a Dynamic Interest Rates v2 model that responds to utilization, with a Peer-to-Peer Matching v2 layer that pairs lenders and borrowers directly when possible to improve rate efficiency for both sides. Borrowers operate under collateral tiers defined by asset risk classifications, and the protocol enforces hard supply and borrow caps per asset to limit concentrated exposure.

Efficiency Mode (eMode) allows users with correlated collateral and debt — such as ETH and liquid staked ETH — to operate at higher loan-to-value ratios than standard parameters would permit, improving capital efficiency for yield strategies involving similar underlying assets.

Liquidations are designed to be surgical: rather than seizing a fixed percentage of a borrower's collateral, the protocol calculates the minimum amount needed to restore the position to health. This approach reduces unnecessary collateral loss compared to protocols that apply blanket liquidation bonuses on the full position. Users can also designate specific assets as non-borrowable collateral — depositing them to back loans without exposing them to the protocol's borrowing demand.

Flash loans are supported natively, enabling uncollateralized single-transaction borrows for arbitrage, collateral swaps, and self-liquidations.

UNO Stablecoin

UNO is Nostra's StarkNet-native USD-pegged stablecoin. It is backed by over-collateralized ETH held in the Nostra Money Market, with peg stability maintained through a 1:1 USDC tether mechanism. UNO allows users to mint stablecoin liquidity against their existing interest-bearing collateral positions without exiting the protocol, keeping capital productive while gaining dollar-denominated spending or trading power within the StarkNet ecosystem.

Swap

Nostra operates a next-generation order book for on-chain token swaps rather than relying solely on automated market maker curves. The order book model supports limit orders and deeper market structure, giving traders more control over execution price than a typical constant-product AMM. More than 70,000 swap transactions have been executed across 17 supported tokens.

Bridge

Nostra includes a native cross-chain bridge in beta, reducing the need for users to leave the application to move assets between networks.

Liquid Staking

nstSTRK, Nostra's liquid staking token for StarkNet's native STRK token, launched in March 2024. It allows STRK holders to earn staking rewards while keeping liquidity accessible within DeFi.

NSTR Governance Token

NSTR is Nostra's governance token with a fixed supply of 100 million tokens. The project conducted a Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP) sale beginning June 10, 2024, followed by an airdrop distributing over 11% of total supply to early users who accumulated points during the protocol's pre-token "Points Season 1."

Notably, 100% of the NSTR supply was unlocked at the token generation event — no vesting cliffs or linear unlock schedules that create persistent sell pressure on later retail participants. The team describes this as the "fairest launch" approach.

NSTR holders can propose and vote on protocol changes, treasury allocations, and strategic direction. The token is deployed on five networks: Ethereum Mainnet, StarkNet, Base, Arbitrum, and Solana. The Solana deployment connects Nostra to the Solana ecosystem and gives NSTR holders on Solana a stake in a protocol whose primary operations run on an Ethereum L2.

Scale and Market Position

Nostra has attracted over 250,000 users and has held TVL figures between $55 million and $200 million depending on market conditions, consistently representing the single largest share of StarkNet's DeFi deposits. During periods of peak activity, reports cited Nostra controlling roughly 68-70% of StarkNet's total network TVL — a concentration that underscores both its dominance and the systemic importance of its security posture to the broader chain.

Security

Nostra has been audited by Trail of Bits, one of the more rigorous smart contract audit firms in the industry. The protocol has also run a security competition through Hats Finance, a bug bounty platform that incentivizes white-hat researchers with on-chain rewards.

In March 2024, the protocol experienced a price feed error that inflated the reported values of xSTRK and sSTRK tokens in the oracle system. In response, the team implemented redundant oracle infrastructure, circuit breakers that can halt new borrowing when anomalous price data is detected, and enhanced monitoring systems. The incident did not result in a loss of user funds but demonstrated the operational importance of robust oracle design in a lending protocol where collateral valuations determine liquidation thresholds.

Ecosystem and Roadmap

Nostra announced an expansion to the Monad ecosystem in August 2024, deploying a testnet instance of its money market on the high-throughput Ethereum-compatible L1. The move signals the team's intention to extend the protocol beyond StarkNet while keeping the same product suite intact.

StarkNet's zero-knowledge proof architecture gives Nostra access to significantly lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum mainnet and faster settlement finality than optimistic rollup competitors, which the team cites as structural advantages for frequent DeFi interactions like interest accrual and liquidation management. The StarkNet fee reduction roadmap — which has cut transaction costs by as much as 85% and increased throughput to over 1,000 transactions per second — benefits Nostra users directly.

As of 2025, Nostra continues operating with active lending markets, swap, and UNO minting on StarkNet mainnet, while NSTR holders on Solana and other chains participate in governance of the underlying protocol.