We study symplectic structures on nilpotent Lie algebras. Since the classification of nilpotent Lie algebras in any dimension seems to be a crazy dream, we approach this study in case of 2-step nilpotent Lie algebras (in this sub-case also, the classification fo the dimension greater than 8 seems very difficult), using not a classification but a description of subfamilies associated with the characteristic sequence. We begin with the dimension $8$, first step where the classification becomes difficult.