How to Get Ready for Berachain

What originally started as a small team of anons selling NFTs to their friends has evolved into one of the most hyped L1 projects of the year. Berachain is an EVM-compatible L1 that raised $100M in 2024, and its mainnet launch is rumored to be imminent.

Unlike contemporary Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain designs – which limit staking to native assets (i.e.; ETH or SOL) – Berachain’s novel Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism provides stakers the ability to use virtually any asset of value to secure the network, from stablecoins to AMM liquidity provider positions to lending market deposits.

By aligning network token incentives with the financial interests of DeFi users, Berachain aspires to achieve a self-reinforcing growth cycle that will foster market-leading liquidity and yield opportunities, positioning it as a dominant force among Layer 1 blockchains!

Interested in being part of the journey pre-mainnet? Here's your guide to gaining exposure to the Berachain opportunity. 👇

🪙 Pre-Launch Deposit Opportunities

One of the issues that apps and chains face when they first launch is attracting liquidity. In the past, projects have offered points or airdrop incentives that get farmed and once users are done farming, they remove their liquidity. 

To combat this issue, teams like LayerZero, Stargate, Royco, and Enso have decided to collaborate with Berachain to create a platform called Boyco. The platform already seems like a hit with over $1.5B in TVL that is ready to be launched on Berachain!

Boyco allows dApps to offer pre-launch liquidity markets for blue-chip tokens like ETH and BTC with lockup periods for users. This helps dApps secure liquidity before the chain is even launched, putting teams in the best position possible to attract users as soon as they go live.

Here’s a short list of some of our favorite vaults:

• The Ether.fi BTC vault, one of the most valuable vaults with $435M in TVL, allows users to deposit different wrapped versions of Bitcoin, like cbBTC, WBTC, etc, and is locked for 90 days once Berachain goes live but in return, users will receive Bera rewards and BTC yield opportunities. 
• In the Dinero ETH vault, users can lock up their ETH for 1-3 months and get in on the $100K in DINERO distributed every week to vault users.
• The Ethena x Concrete vault  is great for USDe and sUSDe holders as you will still receive Ethena points but also be eligible for some Berachain rewards. 

🔴 Infrared Finance

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Infrared is focusing on improving the infrastructure around Berachain's PoL mechanism through node infrastructure, vaults, and a liquid staking solution for the BGT token. 

The governance token behind Berachain, BGT, is a soulbound token so it can’t be transferred to another wallet but can be redeemed 1:1 for BERA. Infrared has come up with a solution with iBGT, a liquid version of BGT, that can be used in other DeFi protocols or can be staked with Infrared to earn delegation rewards. Users can earn iBGT through Infrared’s vaults by staking certain LP tokens to earn emissions from validators in the form of iBGT. 

🍯 Beracana

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With Berachain operating on a PoL mechanism, to maximize your rewards on chain you must try to obtain as much BGT as you can. Beracana offers a helping hand through their farms which allows users to borrow against their HONEY and gain a larger position in their farm pools which leads to more BGT rewards. 

Bercana also has a lottery arm to its protocol where users deposit 10 USDC and then a winner is chosen randomly to win the pot, with a small portion of the winnings goes back to Beracana. Lottery losers receive a special token, LUSDC, which can be used in Bercana’s loser lottery. In the loser’s lottery, users can win NFTs or tokens from projects within the Berachain ecosystem. 

💱 BGT Market

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While BGT tokens are soulbound, BGT Market has created a way for these tokens to be “transferable”. If you have a position in BGT Station, you can claim it through BGT Market’s smart contracts where it will go into its wallet but you will still have full control of the BGT. 

You will still be able to redeem the BGT for BERA, delegate it to a validator, or sell it in a Dutch auction. BGT Market allows users to contribute to a bucket of BGT that is auctioned off in a Dutch auction once the bucket is full, 100 BGT.

 🧐 Conclusion

Berachain took a different approach, compared to other L1s, when creating their chain by focusing on creating a community first. It's been a long road to the L1 launch, but wow with ecosystem projects expected to launch with deep liquidity thanks to Boyco having locked up around $1.5B in TVL, Berachain is prepared to hit the ground running the instant its chain goes live. If the team can retain users and their capital, long-term success appears well within reach!