Berachain: Where Meme Culture Meets Innovative Public Chain
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Berachain: Where Meme Culture Meets Innovative Public Chain
A Guide to Participating in Key Projects in the Berachain Ecosystem
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: LouisWang, Core Contributor of Biteye
Editor: Crush, Core Contributor of Biteye
In today's blockchain landscape, Berachain might be the most "anti-traditional" project.
Its founder, Smoky, wears a bear head whenever appearing publicly;
The name “Bera” is a nod to the famous crypto misspelling “hodl”;
While other projects tout ZK or new programming languages, Berachain chose to build an EVM-compatible Layer 1 public chain based on Cosmos technology;
And as the industry shifts from PoW to PoS, Berachain introduced an entirely new mechanism—POL (Proof of Liquidity).
Behind these seemingly absurd choices lies deep reflection on the fundamental pain points of current blockchains.
01 From NFTs to a Public Chain: A Unique Evolution Story
Berachain’s story begins with an NFT project called "Bong Bears." This seemingly casual NFT series adopted a rebase mechanism similar to OHM: holders of the original Bong Bears received airdrop rights for subsequent collections.
This simple design encouraged long-term holding by many users, leading to the launch of additional series such as Bond Bears, Boo Bears, Baby Bears, Band Bears, and Bit Bears.
How did this NFT project evolve into a highly anticipated public chain backed by top-tier institutions with over $100 million in funding? What makes it so different?
02 The Dilemma of Traditional Blockchains and POL’s Innovative Solution
Traditional blockchains face a fundamental issue: vast amounts of value are locked at the infrastructure level, while actual builders who create real value struggle to receive fair compensation. Validators and token holders earn generous returns through staking, but their contribution is limited to securing the network.
Take some major chains as examples—their FDV reaches $1–10 billion, yet their actual TVL remains under $100 million, despite paying annual yields exceeding 10% to maintain security. This mechanism has led to the emergence of "ghost chains": networks that appear secure but lack meaningful applications or activity.
Proof of Liquidity (POL) is Berachain’s novel consensus mechanism. Unlike traditional PoS networks where rewards come from staking tokens, POL requires users to provide liquidity to designated pools to earn rewards. In other words, earning yield on this network means actively participating in ecosystem building—not just locking up tokens.
To support this mechanism, Berachain designed an elegant three-token system: BGT is a non-transferable governance token exchangeable 1:1 for BERA; BERA is used for gas fees and market trading;
HONEY is a stablecoin over-collateralized by high-quality assets. These three tokens work together to form a self-sustaining economic model.
Under the POL mechanism, users earn BGT rewards by providing liquidity, which they can then delegate to validators for network participation. Validators not only produce blocks but also vote on how BGT rewards are allocated across different liquidity pools.
This creates a unique economic model: validators must carefully assess which projects offer the most value, since their votes directly influence the direction of ecosystem development.
This mechanism achieves three key breakthroughs:
First, it channels network value directly to ecosystem builders and participants. Each protocol can independently design how users earn BGT, creating incentive mechanisms that drive ecological growth. This direct value distribution ensures that value-creating actions receive timely and adequate rewards.
Second, it establishes a symbiotic relationship between validators and project teams. Validator income is tied to project success, incentivizing them to actively support ecosystem development rather than focusing solely on staking yields.
Third, it creates a positive feedback loop. Increased user engagement leads to stronger projects, which attract more users and liquidity—forming a virtuous cycle. This mechanism effectively prevents "ghost chains," as network value becomes directly linked to real-world activity and utility within the ecosystem.
Technologically, Berachain chose to build on Polaris EVM, bringing two major advantages. First, full EVM compatibility lowers the barrier for Ethereum developers. Second, as part of the Cosmos ecosystem, Berachain gains robust cross-chain capabilities via the IBC protocol. This technical choice lays a solid foundation for future ecosystem expansion.
03 Community Culture: From Meme to Strong Consensus
Berachain’s approach to community culture represents a new paradigm in crypto project operations. While many new public chains neglect community building, Berachain has successfully cultivated a highly engaged and strongly identified community.
This unique culture starts with an understanding of Ponzi dynamics. Founded by seasoned DeFi veterans, the Berachain team doesn’t shy away from the "Ponzi" label—instead embracing it with openness and humor. This attitude fosters greater trust and acceptance within the community. Although outsiders often compare Berachain to the former Terra (Luna), such comparisons overlook the fundamental differences in their mechanism designs.
Next is its deeply embedded meme culture. From the project name “Bera,” to founder Smokey wearing a bear head at formal events, to community slang like “Henlo” and “Ooga Booga,” the project exudes internet-native flair perfectly aligned with contemporary crypto aesthetics—naturally cultivating strong community identity.
Finally, we must remember Berachain originated from an NFT project. Since the beginning with Bong Bears, NFTs have served not merely as digital assets but as carriers of community culture. Native projects across the ecosystem voluntarily link their own NFT series to the Bear theme, forming a unified cultural symbol. This cultural identity shows clearly in data: less than 2% of primary NFT series are listed on secondary markets. Compared to plain tokens, these NFTs carry far more cultural significance and a sense of belonging.
04 Ecosystem Projects
Berachain has taken a bold yet practical strategy in ecosystem development: having the core team develop foundational infrastructure directly.
The founding team realized that allowing multiple competing DEXs, lending platforms, and derivatives protocols to fight over market share could lead to meaningless internal competition and destructive rivalry.
Therefore, they decided to retain control over these three most critical infrastructures. More importantly, DEXs, lending platforms, and perpetual contract systems are typically the main revenue sources in any blockchain ecosystem.
By operating these services officially, Berachain can better recycle revenues back to BGT holders, providing sustained value backing for the governance token and driving healthy ecosystem development.
Currently, nearly 100 projects have joined the Berachain ecosystem, with DeFi dominating—highlighting Berachain’s emphasis on liquidity. So far, 15 native projects have received investment from either the bera incubator or VCs, raising a total of $24.4 million in disclosed funding.
Shogun: Cross-Chain Transaction Infrastructure
Shogun was selected into both the Build-A-Bera program and Binance S6 Incubation, aiming to solve core pain points in cross-chain transactions.
Today’s cross-chain trades face multiple challenges: managing multiple wallets, handling different gas fees, selecting proper bridges, and gaining deep knowledge of various ecosystems. These complexities increase operational difficulty and may result in inefficient trades or even fund loss.
Shogun addresses these issues with an innovative intent-based execution system, introducing "solvers" who optimize trade routes to maximize TEV (Traders' Extractable Value).
Specifically, once a trader sets an intent, solvers find the optimal path across chains: buying below limit price for buys, selling above limit price for sells. This transforms traditional MEV into user benefit, delivering a trading experience close to centralized exchanges.
Infrared Finance: Innovation in Liquid Staking
Infrared Finance builds upon Berachain’s POL mechanism and reimagines liquid staking within the three-token framework. Through a POL treasury and iBGT—a liquid staking derivative—it offers BGT holders a value-maximization solution.
The project has secured funding from investors including Binance Labs.
Kodiak: Efficient Liquidity Management
Kodiak positions itself as Berachain’s native liquidity hub. By combining concentrated liquidity with automated liquidity management, it aims to deliver premium liquidity services to support efficient ecosystem operations. The project raised $2 million in seed funding.
Goldilocks: Innovative Fusion of DeFi and NFTfi
Goldilocks raised $1.5 million in a round led by Hack VC and Shima Capital, focusing on building infrastructure at the intersection of DeFi and NFTfi. It features two core components:
Goldiswap: A custom AMM-based trading platform using a dual-pool design with FSL (Funding Support Liquidity) and PSL (Price Support Liquidity) pools.
Goldilend: A lending platform built around the Bong Bears NFT collection. Its innovation lies in determining the minimum valuation of NFTs through governance voting by LOCKS token holders—eliminating reliance on oracles and introducing a new value discovery mechanism for NFT finance.
Honeypot Finance: Innovative Trading and Issuance Mechanisms
Honeypot Finance completed multiple funding rounds totaling $1.3 million, launching two core products:
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DreamPad: A token launchpad using FTO (Fair Token Offering), where projects reserve zero tokens and offer 100% of supply to the market—ensuring maximum fairness.
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HenloDEX: A decentralized exchange powered by Batch-A2MM, employing an innovative trading mechanism that effectively mitigates sandwich attacks while supporting limit orders to improve user experience and reduce slippage.
More testnet projects can be explored via BeraLand.
05 How to Participate
Berachain is currently running its second testnet, Bartio. Basic interactions can be accessed through the official Dapps page, featuring core DeFi primitives developed by the Bera team.
To participate, first claim testnet tokens from https://bartio.faucet.berachain.com/. There's a small eligibility filter: your address must hold at least 0.001 ETH on mainnet. Compared to earlier testnets where faucet access was extremely limited, this round offers a much smoother experience.
After receiving testnet $BERA, you can swap it on BEX for other tokens and provide liquidity. Be sure to keep some $BERA aside for gas fees.
We recommend swapping $BERA into stablecoins like Dai or STGUSDC, then minting the native stablecoin $HONEY via the HONEY app.
Once you have $HONEY, stake it in BERP to get bHONEY, then deposit bHONEY into the corresponding Vault on Station to start earning $BGT rewards. Alternatively, use bHONEY directly as margin for derivatives trading on BERP.
For further interactions, the Vaults on BGT Station serve as excellent reference points. Each Vault corresponds to a specific project. You can gauge project popularity via the BGT Capture metric, interact accordingly, acquire relevant tokens, and deposit them into Station for yield generation.
06 Summary
In my view, Berachain is a truly crypto-native public chain—it deeply understands the two core elements of the crypto world: liquidity and community.
The team grasps that the essence of crypto is liquidity. They openly acknowledge and embrace the self-referential, Ponzi-like nature inherent in crypto systems, and through a carefully crafted three-token model and POL mechanism, this trait can unleash tremendous momentum during bull markets. At the same time, the team excels at community building.
While maintaining serious blockchain development, they leverage meme culture to unite users and aggregate liquidity. A public chain with both a solid user base and abundant liquidity—Berachain’s mainnet launch is worth anticipating. It may well spark a new wave of innovation in DeFi.
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