Berachain, a "community-driven" Layer-1 blockchain, launched its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible mainnet on February 6. This launch was accompanied by an airdrop of its native token, BERA, with nearly 80 million tokens distributed to eligible users. The largest allocation was designated for holders of Bong Bears, the NFT project that originally kickstarted Berachain in 2021.
Trading of BERA began promptly on major exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, and KuCoin, with its market capitalization reaching a peak of $1.17 billion.
Berachain is finally real. pic.twitter.com/hN8KEzrkXO
— Berachain Foundation 🐻⛓ (@berachain) February 6, 2025
Berachain’s Proof-of-Liquidity Consensus
Berachain’s primary technical innovation is its Proof-of-Liquidity incentive mechanism, designed to foster a sustainable ecosystem of applications built on the chain. This model extends the common delegated Proof-of-Stake blockchain design by integrating a layer of liquidity pools directly into the chain. Liquidity providers deposit funds and receive interest from Berachain itself, rather than from individual dApps.
According to the team, this design enables a seamless flow of liquidity between applications, aligning the interests of the chain and its dApp stakeholders. This innovative model has already helped Berachain attract a dedicated community and encourage the development of dApps on the network.
Berachain Founders and Investors
Berachain was founded by a group of pseudonymous individuals known as Smokey the Bera, Papa Bear, Homme Bera, and Dev Bear.
In April 2023, the project raised $42 million in a Series A round at a valuation of $420 million. The round was led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Hack VC, dao5, Tribe Capital, Shima Capital, CitizenX, and Robot Ventures. In true Berachain fashion, even the valuation figure referenced the 4/20 meme.
A year later, in April 2024, Berachain secured an additional $100 million in a Series B round, co-led by Brevan Howard Digital and Framework Ventures, with continued backing from Polychain Capital and other investors.
“Feels surreal,” co-founder Smokey the Bera said on X. “The team and I will be in the trenches, busting bugs and helping teams get set up to win on Berachain.”