Berachain: $1.5 Billion BERA Blockchain and Token Launch

The crypto project Berachain, valued at $1.5 billion in March last year, will launch its token on 6 February.

The crypto project Berachain, valued at $1.5 billion in March last year, will launch its blockchain on 6 February. The announcement was made by the Berachain Foundation on X, along with the unveiling of a native token. Binance, Bybit, KuCoin and MEXC have already confirmed that the BERA token will be added to their trading lists after the network's launch.

Since April 2023, the project has raised funding in two rounds totalling $142m from venture capital firms such as Polychain Capital, Hack VC, dao5, Tribe Capital, Shima Capital, CitizenX, Robot Ventures, HashKey Capital, Framework Venture and Brevan Howard Digital, according to Cryptorank.

At the start of the bullish cycle in 2024, Berachain became one of the first crypto projects to achieve unicorn status (valuation of at least $1 billion). According to Bloomberg, part of the funds raised in the $69 million round closed in March came from the sale of tokens.

One of the main differences between Berachain's launch and that of other projects is the collection of preliminary deposits for on-chain applications. According to the monitoring platform Dune, as of 5 February, the project had collected over $3.3 billion in deposits from nearly 167,000 users via the specialised platform Boyco. This has allowed it to reach sixth place in the ranking of networks with the highest total blocked value (TVL), surpassing Arbitrum and Base.

According to the developers, the method of raising pre-launch liquidity solves the problem of 'cold start', or the lack of initial capital that plagues many decentralised financial applications, limiting the service to network users.

The project presents itself as a community-oriented, first-tier blockchain. It was initially promoted through memes and graphical content, with a visual identity inspired by an NFT collection depicting bears.

The term 'Bera' is an intentional distortion of the word 'bear' and recalls the meme terms 'hodl' and 'hodler' (from 'hold' and 'holder'). Furthermore, the four developers of Berachain operate under pseudonyms: Smokey the Bera, Papa Bear, Homme Bera and Dev Bear. All of them are active members of the crypto community and boast thousands of followers on X (formerly Twitter).

Proof-of-Liquidity

The Berachain project is focused on decentralised finance (DeFi) and is compatible with Ethereum-based applications, but is based on the Cosmos SDK technology (also used by Atom, Mantra, etc.) and its own algorithm called Proof-of-Liquidity.) and on its own algorithm called Proof-of-Liquidity.

The Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) is a new hybrid mechanism, a modification of the Proof-of-Stake (PoS), used in networks such as Ethereum and Solana. The main difference is that, in PoL, node operators do not have to freeze liquidity, unlike in PoS networks where assets are frozen during staking. In Berachain's PoL system, users' funds can be used within the ecosystem and decentralised applications, while still guaranteeing the security of the network.

For example, to become a node operator in Ethereum and receive fees to guarantee the security of the network, one needs to 'freeze' 32 ETH (about $88 thousand), which cannot be used. In Berachain, by contrast, users are not subject to freezes and can use this liquidity to invest in other projects within the ecosystem.

Two Tokens

Another key difference between Berachain and its competitors is the presence of two tokens: BERA and BGT. The former is an asset used for paying network fees and staking, while the latter serves as a protocol governance and reward token.

Most modern blockchain networks issue a single native token for all major transactions. For example, in Ethereum, the ETH coin is used both for payment of fees and for staking and awarding rewards to the node operators that ensure the operation of the platform.

The issuance of BGT is linked to the staking of BERA, which can be exchanged by burning BGT.

According to the project documents, BGT cannot be purchased or transferred to others, but can only be obtained by actively participating in the Berachain ecosystem.
"BGT (Bera Governance Token) is non-transferable and can only be acquired through activities in the Berachain ecosystem."

Own Stablecoin

The project team has also developed a third token, the HONEY stablecoin. According to statements on the website, this asset will be completely supported by other crypto assets, with a soft' anchor to the dollar.

Initially, it will be issued with collateral in USDC, the stablecoin of the Circle issuer. In the future, the offer may be expanded by a vote of BGT holders.