What is Berachain and what does it do?

Berachain is a layer 1 blockchain that its docs call "EVM-identical," meaning apps built for Ethereum can run on it unchanged. Its main idea is Proof of Liquidity, a system that rewards people for providing liquidity to apps on the chain. The native coin is BERA.

What is Berachain crypto?

Berachain was started by pseudonymous co-founders known as Smokey the Bera, Dev Bear, Papa Bear and Homme Bera. The Block reports it raised $42 million in April 2023 and $100 million in a Series B round in April 2024. Mainnet launched on February 6, 2025. Its branding is built around bears, and its token plan set aside a share for holders of the Bong Bears NFT collection.

What is Berachain built on?

According to The Block, Berachain is built with the Cosmos SDK and pairs it with an execution layer identical to the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Developers can use the same tools and wallets they use on Ethereum.

Validators stake BERA to join the active set, which the docs say is the top 69 validators by stake. A validator's chance of producing a block is proportional to its staked BERA.

What does Berachain do with Proof of Liquidity?

Proof of Liquidity changes where new tokens go. In standard proof of stake, rewards mainly go to validators and stakers. On Berachain, block production emits wrapped BERA (WBERA). A portion goes to the validator, and the rest flows to "reward vaults" connected to apps. Apps can offer incentives to attract those emissions, and users earn rewards by supplying liquidity through eligible vaults or by staking into sWBERA, a staking vault token.

The original design used two tokens. BERA paid gas and secured the chain, while BGT was a non-transferable governance token earned through reward vaults. On July 8, 2026, a hard fork called PoL Next ended BGT emissions and replaced them with fixed WBERA rewards. Cointelegraph reported that the Berachain Foundation called the new model simpler. Blockworks notes BGT holders are directed to migrate into sWBERA.

What is the Berachain coin and the Berachain airdrop?

BERA is the gas and staking token. Fees are burned, and new supply is issued at about 5% a year as WBERA rewards, a rate governance can change. Genesis supply was 500 million BERA. Blockworks reports that 79 million BERA, 15.8% of genesis supply, went to the airdrop when mainnet launched in February 2025. For how airdrops work in general, see our airdrop guide.

Berachain also has a native stablecoin minted against approved collateral such as USDC and USDT0. It was called HONEY until August 19, 2026, when it was renamed BUSD, with the same contract address and no swap needed. It is not related to the older Binance-branded BUSD.