Berachain

Berachain is an EVM-identical Layer 1 blockchain that launched its mainnet on February 6, 2025, introducing a novel consensus mechanism called Proof of Liquidity. It aligns liquidity and security at the network level, meaning the act of providing DeFi liquidity is also the act of securing the chain. No other major blockchain combines these two functions in this way.

On traditional proof-of-stake chains, stakers lock capital in validators to secure the network. That capital sits idle and cannot be used in DeFi. Berachain separates the token for gas and security from the token that governs chain rewards and incentives, solving the tension between staking and liquidity faced by other proof-of-stake networks. Think of it as a power grid where your energy bill also charges your neighbor’s battery.

The mechanism works through a three-token system. BERA is the gas token. BGT is a non-transferable governance token that users earn by providing liquidity to protocols on-chain. HONEY is Berachain’s native over-collateralized stablecoin. BGT cannot be bought on the open market, only earned by participating in DeFi on Berachain, and it can be irreversibly burned at a 1:1 ratio for BERA. This creates a direct economic relationship between DeFi participation and network security.

Berachain grew out of a rebasing NFT collection called Bong Bears, which debuted in early 2021. The NFT community that formed around those collections became the project’s earliest and most committed users. The three pseudonymous founders, known as Smokey the Bear, Homme Bera, and Dev Bear, built the project from that community base outward.

Berachain launched its first public testnet, Artio, in January 2024. The testnet attracted so much activity that the original Cosmos SDK infrastructure could not handle the transaction volume. This led the team to rebuild the chain using BeaconKit, a modular EVM-identical blockchain framework. By mainnet launch, Berachain’s pre-launch liquidity platform Boyco had attracted $3.1 billion in liquidity, making it the eighth-largest chain by total value locked on day one. This is an extraordinary starting position for a chain that had never processed real transactions.

Berachain raised $142 million across two funding rounds. In April 2023, Polychain Capital led a $42 million round at a valuation of $420.69 million. In April 2024, Framework Ventures and the Abu Dhabi branch of Brevan Howard Digital led a $100 million Series B. Other backers in the Series B included Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and Samsung Next. Framework Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital are two of the most respected allocators in institutional crypto. Their co-lead on a $100 million round is a signal that Proof of Liquidity passed serious technical and economic scrutiny before launch.

BERA is the native gas token of Berachain and the primary asset for validator staking. The total supply at genesis is 500 million BERA, with an estimated annual inflation of about 10% due to BGT emissions. Validators must stake at least 250,000 BERA to join the active validator set. Users who want to earn BGT provide liquidity to whitelisted reward vaults on Berachain protocols. Validators then direct BGT emissions to those vaults in exchange for protocol incentives. Every part of this loop runs through BERA, tying demand for the token to every network interaction.

BERA is accessible on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges for standard purchases. For large token amounts, locked BERA allocations, or SAFT notes, Acquire.Fi’s OTC and Secondaries Marketplace gives you direct access to counterparties outside the open market.

You can buy Berachain tokens OTC on Acquire.Fi by reviewing existing sell listings or submitting a new Buy listing with your target price and quantity.

You can also sell Berachain tokens OTC on Acquire.Fi if you hold a position and want to exit. Check active Buy listings for a match, or submit a new Sell listing with your preferred terms.

Acquire.Fi coordinates the rest. The team performs background checks, issues non-disclosure agreements, and connects both parties. You and your counterparty are responsible for due diligence and settling payment. Acquire.Fi is not a broker-dealer, but the team remains active throughout to give both sides the best possible chance of reaching a close.