Lending · Review
ActiveNostra Money Market Alpha Review 2026: Starknet Lending
Nostra Money Market Alpha is a small non-custodial lending and borrowing market on Starknet. Its tiny TVL, absence of listed audits and a reported oracle exploit call for caution.
By the DappsAtlas editorial team · Updated
DappsAtlas score
4.5/10
Weak
Our verdict on Nostra Money Market Alpha
4.5/10Nostra Money Market Alpha suits experienced Starknet users who want a simple, non-custodial place to lend or borrow ETH, USDC and DAI and who understand DeFi risk. Its main strength is a straightforward lending model on a low-cost layer-2 network. The main caveat is safety: TVL is small, no audits are listed, and reports of a roughly $3.5M oracle exploit suggest price-feed weaknesses. Newcomers should start with very small amounts or look at deeper, audited markets.
Score breakdown
How Nostra Money Market Alpha scores
- Security
- 3.5/10
- Ease of use
- 6.5/10
- Fees
- n/a
- Features
- 5.0/10
Scores run from 0 to 10 and are based only on facts we could verify. Where information was missing we mark the score n/a rather than guess.
What is Nostra Money Market Alpha?
Nostra Money Market Alpha is a lending and borrowing market on Starknet. It is part of the wider Nostra project, which has also offered swapping, liquidity pools and bridging. The project describes this market as permissionless and non-custodial, with assets such as ETH, USDC and DAI available.
The market has been tracked since October 2023. Its total value locked is about $161,500, with a small weekly increase. That is modest for a lending protocol and means limited depth for large deposits or loans.
Public reporting also report that Nostra Finance lost about $3.5M in an oracle-manipulation attack on Starknet. The reports say NSTR collateral was priced from a thin pool with no deviation guard. No audits are listed for this deployment, and the project does not publish a licence, team details or fee schedule in the material available.
How Nostra Money Market Alpha works
A money market is a pool of crypto supplied by lenders. Smart contracts hold the pool and track who deposited what. Lenders earn interest, and borrowers pay it.
To borrow, a user first deposits collateral, which is worth more than the loan. The protocol uses price oracles to value collateral and debt. If the collateral value falls too far, the position can be liquidated, meaning others repay part of the debt and receive the collateral at a discount.
Oracle quality matters a lot. Reports about a Nostra exploit say a collateral asset was priced from a thin pool without a deviation guard, so its price could be pushed to drain funds. That is the type of weakness lending users should keep in mind.
6 features
Key features
01
Lending pools
Users deposit assets into pools and earn interest paid by borrowers. Supported assets include ETH, USDC and DAI, among others.
02
Collateralized borrowing
Borrowers post collateral and take out loans from the pools without approval from a company or credit check.
03
Non-custodial design
The project describes the market as permissionless and non-custodial, so users keep control of their wallets and interact directly with contracts.
04
Starknet native
The market runs on Starknet, an Ethereum layer-2 network, which generally means lower transaction costs than mainnet.
05
Bridging access
Nostra points users to a bridging route to and from Starknet through Layerswap, helping bring assets onto the network.
06
NSTR ecosystem token
The wider Nostra ecosystem has an NSTR token, which is listed alongside this market.
Pros and cons
What we like
- Non-custodial design: users keep control of their wallets and interact directly with smart contracts.
- Supports well-known assets such as ETH, USDC and DAI.
- Runs on Starknet, which typically has lower transaction costs than Ethereum mainnet.
- Combines lending and borrowing in one simple market interface.
- Established since late 2023, giving it a multi-year track record on Starknet.
Watch out for
- Total value locked is only about $161,000, so liquidity is thin and borrowing capacity is limited.
- No audits are listed for this deployment.
- Public reporting report a roughly $3.5M oracle-manipulation exploit tied to Nostra, which raises questions about price-feed design.
- Interest rates, collateral factors and liquidation penalties are not published in the material available.
- It runs only on Starknet, so users need a Starknet wallet and bridged assets.
- The homepage gives little detail about the team, governance or risk parameters.
Nostra Money Market Alpha fees
Fee details are not published in the material available. Interest rates for lenders and borrowers, any protocol reserve share and liquidation penalties are set inside the app and vary by asset and market conditions.
Users also pay Starknet network fees for each transaction, plus any bridge fees if they move assets onto Starknet. Check the live market screens and the transaction preview before confirming anything.
Is Nostra Money Market Alpha safe?
Funds sit in smart contracts rather than with a custodian, so the main risks are contract bugs, oracle manipulation and liquidations. No audits are listed for this deployment, and the project does not publish bug-bounty or insurance details in the material available.
Public reporting report a roughly $3.5M exploit affecting Nostra Finance, attributed to a thin oracle source with no deviation guard. Readers should check what fixes the team has announced and whether this market was affected. Any DeFi lending position can lose value, so never deposit more than you can afford to lose.
6 steps
How to get started with Nostra Money Market Alpha
- 1
Set up a Starknet-compatible wallet and keep the seed phrase offline.
- 2
Move assets to Starknet, either through a bridge or an exchange that supports Starknet withdrawals.
- 3
Open the Nostra Money Market Alpha app and connect your wallet.
- 4
Review the markets, supply rates, borrow rates and collateral settings for each asset.
- 5
Start with a small deposit to confirm how the interface and transactions behave.
- 6
If you borrow, keep a wide safety margin above the liquidation threshold and monitor your position.
Who Nostra Money Market Alpha is for
This market is for DeFi users already comfortable with Starknet wallets who want to earn interest or borrow against crypto, and who can judge oracle and liquidation risk. It is a poor fit for beginners, anyone needing deep liquidity, or users who require published audits and clear fee schedules.
Nostra Money Market Alpha FAQs
What is Nostra Money Market Alpha?
It is a permissionless, non-custodial money market on Starknet. Users supply crypto such as ETH, USDC or DAI to earn interest, or post collateral to borrow other assets.
Is Nostra Money Market Alpha safe?
The project describes the market as non-custodial, meaning users interact through smart contracts instead of handing funds to a company. That removes custodian risk but leaves smart-contract, oracle and liquidation risk. No audits are listed for this deployment, and public reporting report a roughly $3.5M exploit tied to Nostra involving a thin oracle source.
Which blockchain does it use?
It runs on Starknet, an Ethereum layer-2 network. You need a Starknet-compatible wallet and assets on that network. Nostra also points to a bridging route to and from Starknet through a third-party bridge.
Does it have a token?
Yes. The project has a token called NSTR, which is also the asset reported in the exploit coverage as collateral priced from a thin pool. The material available does not say how the token is used in this specific market.
What are the borrowing and lending rates?
Interest rates are set by the protocol and change with market conditions, but specific rates, fees and collateral factors are not published on its homepage available. Check the app's market screens before depositing.
What are the risks of borrowing here?
Borrowing against crypto carries liquidation risk. If your collateral value falls or your debt value rises past the protocol's threshold, your collateral can be sold at a penalty. Keep a healthy buffer and only borrow what you can afford to lose.
Compare
Nostra Money Market Alpha alternatives
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Compound V3 is a lending protocol on Ethereum and nine other chains where users supply a base asset for yield or borrow it against collateral.
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Same category
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Kamino Finance is a Solana DeFi protocol offering lending, automated liquidity vaults and leverage tools for users seeking on-chain yield.
Aave V4 is a modular, non-custodial lending protocol using a hub-and-spoke design, for users who want to earn on or borrow against crypto.
Venus Core Pool is a multi-chain DeFi money market where users supply crypto to earn interest or borrow against collateral, with about $1.18B in TVL.
Kamino is a Solana DeFi protocol with a lending market, automated concentrated liquidity vaults and an intents-based swap, for yield-seeking on-chain users.
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OKX is a major centralized crypto exchange for spot and derivatives trading, earn products and a Web3 wallet, with its own OKB token.
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dRPC is a multichain RPC provider offering managed cloud endpoints, an open-source load balancer and chain infrastructure tools for developers and foundations.
Bitget is a centralized exchange for crypto spot and futures that also offers tokenized stocks, commodities and forex in one account, for active traders.
StarkGate is the official StarkWare-developed token bridge between Ethereum and Starknet, for users moving ETH and ERC-20 tokens to Starknet.
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How we checked
Sources
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