The Starknet Foundation announced Monday that its committee for decentralized finance (DeFi) will distribute in total 40 million STRK tokens to DeFi protocols native to Starknet, its layer 2 blockchain network that is based on zero-knowledge technology. 

The committee will distribute STRK “every two weeks across six to eight months to participating DeFi protocols on Starknet,” according to a press release shared with Unchained, Some of the recipient protocols include lending and borrowing application Nostra, decentralized exchange Ekubo and options platform Carmine. 

The announcement to distribute tokens to DeFi protocols comes as crypto denizens both applauded and criticized Starknet Foundation’s airdrop strategy to let roughly 1.3 million addresses claim STRK on Feb. 20.

The DeFi distribution program, which will begin on Feb. 22, is the first step of several for the committee in scaling and growing DeFi on Starknet. 

Read More: Starknet’s Airdrop Plan Sparks Some Praise but Also Outrage

In addition to the 40 million tokens, the committee has also allocated 10 million STRK for upcoming initiatives in the second or third quarter of this year. Currently, the committee is exploring the possibility of hosting DeFi hackathons and funding project grant programs and short-term incentive programs.

While Starknet will allocate tokens to selected protocols, the protocols themselves will determine how tokens end up in their users’ pockets. “Each protocol will be responsible for their own distribution of STRK and may have different programs for how and which users will be able to earn STRK,” the foundation stated. 

Decentralized finance is a sub-ecosystem in the crypto space aimed at enabling people to engage in financial activities — such as lending, borrowing and trading — without traditional intermediaries like banks. 

Read More: Starknet’s First Token Distribution Will Be Available to Nearly 1.3 Million Addresses

The locked value in Starknet’s smart contracts stands at $54.2 million, including a nearly 42% increase since the beginning of 2024, data from DefiLlama shows.

UPDATE Feb. 19, 10:57 a.m. ET: Lead sentence changed to reflect the total amount of tokens Starknet Foundation’s DeFi committee will distribute to various protocols.