Berachain 2025 Year-End Update and Vision for 2026

As we close out 2025 and step into 2026, the Berachain team shares a transparent update on the project's milestones, lessons learned, and strategic direction moving forward. This blog post reviews the wins, acknowledges setbacks, and outlines our approach to sustainable growth.

Recap of 2025 Performance

Early in the year, Berachain reached all-time highs across several key metrics, showcasing strong community engagement and platform activity. Notable achievements include:

Over 25 million BERA tokens staked in the innovative Proof of Liquidity (PoL) mechanism — a new model designed to incentivize liquidity provision and network growth.
More than $30 million in PoL revenue distributed to BGT and BERA holders, positioning Berachain as a top 5 blockchain by distributed token holder revenue.
$250 million total value locked (TVL) supported by PoL incentives.
$100 million stablecoins deployed on-chain, with BERA-backed USDT listed on major exchanges such as Kraken, Bybit, and OKX.
Maintaining a strong treasury with a 1:3 ratio of DAT cash holdings relative to market capitalization.

These metrics highlight Berachain’s robust infrastructure and the initial success of our revenue-sharing model.

Unique Advantages Driving Berachain

Berachain’s growth is supported by several key factors:

Proof of Liquidity (PoL): Emissions are auctioned to decentralized applications, creating a pioneering revenue driver for an L1 blockchain.
Chain-Owned DeFi Ecosystem: Platforms like BEX, BEND, and HONEY offer control over liquidity and collateral, contributing to chain sustainability.
Experienced Team: Our blend of traditional finance, technology, and crypto expertise allows for a fundamentally driven approach.
Advanced Tech Stack: An EVM-equivalent environment with single-slot finality and preconfirmations enhances performance with potential for monetization of block-building.
BERA DAT (Decentralized Autonomous Trust): Enables strategic acquisitions and collaborations with traditional public markets.

Ecosystem Highlights

Despite challenging market conditions in Q4, Berachain’s ecosystem gained traction:

Token listings for projects like $IR, $DOLO, and $KDK on major exchanges.
Substantial demand demonstrated by $KDK with approximately $150 million demand for a $1 million Gate IDO.
Around 50% of circulating BERA removed from functional supply through PoL staking and ecosystem activities.
Multi-exchange integration of PoL BERA staking (Binance, Gate, Bitget, and more).
Successful full recovery of $12 million funds during November’s Balancer exploit.
Vibrant and growing communities spanning NFTs, derivatives, and international groups, supported by regional leads.
Strengthening of the product team with key hires experienced from Polygon, Microsoft, and other tech sectors.

Challenges and Team Changes

We faced some headwinds, including:

Market sentiment and price dynamics negatively impacting distribution and project engagement.
Loss of 2-3 promising community projects due to these difficult conditions.
A strategic marketing reset moving away from retail-focused campaigns to emphasize fundamentals.
The departure of lead developer Alberto, who is pursuing new opportunities in the web2 space, leaving on excellent terms.

Focus Areas for Real-World Yield and Financial Primitives

Berachain is actively developing and partnering on projects that bring real-world asset tokenization and financial infrastructure to the blockchain:

Tokenized e-commerce royalties with a $1 billion revenue pipeline.
Shariah-compliant telecom bonds with $10 million contracts ready.
Stablecoin-native financing solutions for global trade.
On-chain borrowing based on real credit scores.
A cross-chain elastic AMM with high capital efficiency.
On-chain search fund and private equity operations completing multiple revenue-generating acquisitions.

In media and consumer engagement, partnerships with sports, entertainment, K-pop, and Gen-Z consumer platforms are driving adoption and real revenue.

Rethinking the L1 Model

The traditional Layer 1 approach — providing public goods and incentives hoping to drive token value — faces limitations. Token value rarely correlates directly with app success due to lowered transaction costs and shifting network dynamics.

To succeed, Berachain will embrace a hands-on role, building or acquiring businesses on-chain that directly create value for the BERA ecosystem. This means focusing on areas that aren’t solely dependent on crypto market cycles and require active team involvement.

Strategic Execution Plan for 2026

We will concentrate our efforts on 3 to 5 high-conviction applications, employing an internal incubation model with select equity or revenue-sharing partnerships. Target companies will have:

$10 million+ demand for BERA/HONEY tokens.
Annual revenue potentials exceeding $10 million.
Strong founding teams.
Distribution channels beyond purely crypto-native users.

Our team will provide comprehensive support in business development, product, and engineering to accelerate growth.

Goals and Metrics for Success

Our progress will be measured by:

Achieving emissions neutrality, where protocol revenues offset emissions.
Moving into profitability with revenues exceeding emissions.
Reinvesting profits into growth opportunities and token buybacks.

While revenue is not the sole focus, Berachain’s architecture is well suited to generating sustainable income, which helps control our future and generate genuine token value.

How You Can Contribute

Introduce high-potential teams working on PoL-accelerated yield products, scalable fintechs, or SMBs with on-chain cash float.
Consider holding stablecoins in HONEY and related vaults offering attractive yields.
Connect us with Web2 SMBs interested in better yield solutions.
Share connections to potential liquidity providers and ecosystem partners.
Assist with resolving community account bans on social platforms.
Reach out if you want to connect with any of the teams or projects mentioned.

We move into 2026 with renewed focus and commitment. Our goal is clear: to build and support businesses that create lasting value for the Berachain ecosystem and tokenholders. Thank you to our builders, investors, community, and everyone who has supported us on this journey.

Onward to a successful next chapter!

Berachain Foundation
January 2026