DeFi
Berachain, a layer 1 blockchain centered on decentralized finance (DeFi), has introduced its $42 million Sequence A at a valuation of $420.69 million (conveniently, on April 20).
The fundraise, finalized final December, was led by Polychain Capital and included traders Hack VC, dao5, Tribe Capital, Shima Capital and Robotic Ventures, in addition to a number of undisclosed centralized crypto exchanges.
If it’s not apparent from the $420.69 million valuation, Berachain is a venture that doesn’t shrink back from crypto aptitude. It was launched by a quartet of pseudonymous founders (Smokey the Bera, Papa Bear, Homme Bera and Dev Bear) who’re self-described “crypto natives.” ‘Bera’ is ‘bear’ deliberately misspelled, a sly hat tip to the deranged crypto rallying cry ‘Hodl.’
Cosmos-based Berachain is, in essence, a rewind again to the high-flying, is-this-a-ponzi DeFi tasks of 2021, earlier than all of the frauds, bankruptcies and Wells Notices sucked the degeneracy (and yields) out of crypto.
Berachain’s origins hint again to a NFT assortment, Bong Bears, which three of the 4 pseudonymous co-founders launched in August 2021. The venture’s OpenSea description reads: “100 completely zooted NFT bears getting baked.” However even the venture’s identify (and Smokey’s) is a misnomer. “I don’t assume anybody on the core crew even smokes,” mentioned Berachain co-founder Smokey in an interview with CoinDesk.
On the time, the crew was impressed by the rebasing protocol OlympusDAO, which was quickly gaining traction within the crypto group. Within the fall of 2021, OlympusDAO’s OHM token traded at a excessive of $1,300. (It has since fallen to about $10 per OHM). Bong Bears adopted within the footsteps of OlympusDAO, creating the first-ever assortment of rebasing NFTs, which spawned a number of new collections – Bond Bears, Boo Bears, Child Bears, Band Bears and Bit Bears.
Learn Extra: Olympus DAO May Be the Way forward for Cash (or It May Be a Ponzi)
Smokey says the pivot from Bong Bears NFTs to launching a fully-fledged layer-1 blockchain just isn’t so far-fetched. “Bong Bears bootstrapped a group of DeFi lovers,” he mentioned. “What if we may take among the liquidity and make it helpful?”
Proof of Liquidity
Berachain says its know-how will enable staked property for use in DeFi protocols, creating extra liquidity and capital effectivity on-chain. At the moment, staked property, akin to staked Ethereum, are locked whereas they’re used to safe the underlying blockchain’s community. Berachain says their ‘Proof of Liquidity’ consensus will enable customers to concurrently stake property on Berachain and use these property to commerce, borrow or lend on-chain.
In response to a press launch, the Bera ecosystem already has over $250 million in dedicated capital to deploy, and can launch a public incentivized testnet within the coming weeks.
“In numerous circumstances, liquidity is mercenary,” mentioned Smokey. “The rationale why they’re mercenary is which you can’t do a lot with stake property, they only sit there.”
“Berachain…supplies the primary construction which aligns incentives between liquidity and safety on the chain stage, creating a large alternative to soak up nearly all of liquidity and switch it right into a sticky, capital environment friendly base for DeFi platforms to construct on prime of,” mentioned Polychain founder Olaf Carlson-Wee in an announcement.
Berachain may even launch BERA, its native fuel token, and BGT, its governance token. The ecosystem may even embrace a stablecoin, HONEY.
“If folks wish to assume that we’re a rug, I’d inform them to do their very own analysis,” mentioned Smokey. “There’s a non-trivial historical past of pseudonymous tasks doing good issues.”
