Berachain, the DeFi-focused Layer 1 Blockchain, has disclosed that it raised $42 million in December. Polychain Capital spearheaded the round of funding, which also brought in investors like as Hack VC, dao5, Tribe Capital, Shima Capital, Robot Ventures, and a few unnamed CEXs. The project’s stated goal is to provide liquidity to DeFi protocols while also allowing users to stake tokens.
The Berachain mission and what the future holds for ecosystem users
Berachain is a Layer 1 blockchain that was developed on top of the Cosmos SDK and uses a Proof of Liquidity consensus mechanism to be EVM-compatible. Four pseudonymous crypto industry veterans (Smokey the Bera, Papa Bear, Homme Bera, and Dev Bear) are credited with launching the project. It’s the first platform of its kind to properly match incentives between liquidity and security on a chain. By using this approach, it is opening up a huge window of opportunity to soak up the vast majority of liquidity and transform into a durable, cost-effective foundation for DeFi platforms.
The Berachain team says that its solution will enable the usage of staked assets in DeFi protocols, leading to increased on-chain liquidity and capital efficiency. To protect the integrity of the underlying blockchain network, staked assets like staked ether (ETH) are currently locked away. Using Berachain’s “proof of liquidity” consensus, users will be able to stake assets while transacting, borrowing, or lending those same assets on-chain.
Berachain is now accessible as a development network (devnet), with a public incentivized testnet and possible mainnet release scheduled for the next weeks. According to the project, more than $250 million in committed total value is locked to deploy in the Bera ecosystem before it launches on mainnet. Along with the launch of Berachain’s mainnet, investors that support the funding round will receive native bera tokens. The blockchain has three native tokens which include BERA, the native gas token, and BGT, the governance token. Furthermore, it will also launch HONEY, a stablecoin.