DeFi-Focused Layer 1 Berachain Raises $42M Series A at $420.69M Valuation

Berachain, a layer 1 blockchain focused on decentralized finance (DeFi), has announced its $42 million Series A at a valuation of $420.69 million (conveniently, on April 20).

The fundraise, finalized last December, was led by Polychain Capital and included investors Hack VC, dao5, Tribe Capital, Shima Capital and Robot Ventures, as well as several undisclosed centralized crypto exchanges.

If it’s not obvious from the $420.69 million valuation, Berachain is a project that doesn’t shy away from crypto flair. It was launched by a quartet of pseudonymous founders (Smokey the Bera, Papa Bear, Homme Bera and Dev Bear) who are self-described “crypto natives.” ‘Bera’ is ‘bear’ intentionally misspelled, a sly hat tip to the deranged crypto rallying cry ‘Hodl.’

Cosmos-based Berachain is, in essence, a rewind back to the high-flying, is-this-a-ponzi DeFi projects of 2021, before all the frauds, bankruptcies and Wells Notices sucked the degeneracy (and yields) out of crypto.

Berachain’s origins trace back to a NFT collection, Bong Bears, which three of the four pseudonymous co-founders launched in August 2021. The project’s OpenSea description reads: “100 absolutely zooted NFT bears getting baked.” But even the project’s name (and Smokey’s) is a misnomer. “I don’t think anyone on the core team even smokes,” said Berachain co-founder Smokey in an interview with CoinDesk.

At the time, the team was inspired by the rebasing protocol OlympusDAO, which was rapidly gaining traction in the crypto community. In the fall of 2021, OlympusDAO’s OHM token traded at a high of $1,300. (It has since fallen to about $10 per OHM). Bong Bears followed in the footsteps of OlympusDAO, creating the first-ever collection of rebasing NFTs, which spawned several new collections – Bond Bears, Boo Bears, Baby Bears, Band Bears and Bit Bears.