Berachain (BERA) is the native gas and staking token of Berachain, an EVM-identical Layer-1 blockchain with chain ID 80094. BERA is not an ERC-20 token issued on another chain; it exists directly on the network it secures.
Berachain mainnet launched on February 6, 2025. The chain uses a consensus mechanism called Proof of Liquidity, under which validators stake BERA to secure the network.
Berachain's Proof of Liquidity consensus ties block rewards to on-chain liquidity provision rather than pure capital staking, aiming to align validators, decentralized applications, and liquidity providers around shared incentives.
At its post-launch peak in 2025, Berachain's DeFi total value locked reached approximately $3.35 billion, briefly ranking it among the largest DeFi blockchains by TVL. As of September 2026, chain TVL had fallen to roughly $32 million.
BERA functions primarily as a utility and staking token: it pays gas fees on Berachain and is staked by validators to secure the network under Proof of Liquidity.
Following the "PoL Next" hard fork on July 8, 2026, Berachain moved to a single-token model built around BERA and its wrapped form WBERA, with a staked variant, sWBERA. Validator operators and reward-vault distributors receive WBERA per block, replacing the prior dual-token BGT emission structure.
Circulating supply is approximately 318.93 million BERA, against a total supply of about 558.02 million BERA, as of September 2026; fully diluted valuation is approximately $98.3 million.
Berachain mainnet launched on February 6, 2025, alongside BERA's Token Generation Event. Its founders had earlier launched the pseudonymous "Bong Bears" NFT collection around August 2021, which evolved into the Berachain project.
Berachain raised a $42 million private token round in April 2023 led by Polychain Capital, followed by a Series B round that Berachain disclosed as $100 million, co-led by Brevan Howard Digital and Framework Ventures. At mainnet launch, an airdrop valued at roughly $632 million distributed 79 million BERA (15.8% of the 500 million genesis supply).
Berachain operates its own EVM-identical Layer-1 blockchain, chain ID 80094, rather than deploying as a token on another network.
The chain's consensus mechanism is Proof of Liquidity (PoL), in which validators stake BERA to participate in block production and network security; historical validator stake requirements have ranged from approximately 250,000 to 10 million BERA.
Berachain's founding team is pseudonymous, operating under bear-themed names including "Smokey the Bera," "Homme Bera," and "Dev Bear."
The founders' project originated from the "Bong Bears" NFT collection launched in 2021. Key investors and backers include Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Shima Capital, Robot Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Framework Ventures, Samsung Next, Laser Digital, Hashkey Capital, and Nomad Capital.
The Berachain Foundation maintains and develops the project, overseeing ecosystem grants and developer funding.
A Berachain-related corporate entity is based in George Town, Cayman Islands, and was founded in 2021 with a focus on Layer-1 blockchain technology for decentralized finance.
Berachain's governance is transitioning through a phased approach toward community control, as described by the Berachain Foundation.
Until July 8, 2026, network incentive direction ran through BGT, a non-transferable token earned by liquidity providers who could delegate it to validators steering reward-vault emissions. The "PoL Next" hard fork ended BGT emissions, consolidating governance-adjacent incentives into a single-token BERA/WBERA/sWBERA system.
Berachain's most significant recent upgrade is the "PoL Next" hard fork, completed July 8, 2026, which ended BGT emissions and moved the network to a single-token BERA/WBERA/sWBERA model. The Berachain Foundation projected this could raise staking APRs by up to roughly 3x.
A "Bera Builds Businesses" initiative is reported as an ongoing 2026 effort to build, acquire, or partner with three to five applications generating cash flow, intended to support protocol revenue as token emissions taper.
Berachain's codebase has been audited by Spearbit, Nethermind, and Quantstamp, and the project runs an active bug bounty program on Immunefi.
No major exploits have been reported. A structural risk factor is the chain's steep decline in total value locked, down roughly 99% from its 2025 post-launch peak of approximately $3.35 billion to about $32 million as of September 2026, reducing the liquidity base underpinning Proof of Liquidity security.