Author: Ma He, Foresight News
Original Title: Token Price Crash, Layoffs, Developers Fleeing—Is Berachain Becoming a Heaven-Forsaken Public Chain?
On January 14, BERA experienced a sudden surge, rising from $0.5 to $0.9, a rare occurrence amid a previous 12-week consecutive decline. That day, the Berachain Foundation released its year-end summary for 2025, highlighting ecosystem expansion, technical optimization, and community engagement after the mainnet launch, but also candidly acknowledging the pressures brought by market volatility.
After the Berachain mainnet launch, both TVL and token price experienced severe fluctuations. This may not only be due to market cycles but also the combined result of internal strategies and external pressures.
TVL Drops from $3 Billion to $180 Million, Chain Revenue $84 in 24 Hours
In February 2025, Berachain officially launched its mainnet, introducing an innovative Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism. This mechanism aims to incentivize application and user participation through liquidity proof rather than traditional Proof of Stake, making Berachain a Layer 1 chain designed specifically for DeFi applications, intended to enhance capital efficiency and user adoption. Initially, the ecosystem expanded rapidly, attracting hundreds of dApps, including DEXs like BEX, lending protocols, and NFT markets.
TVL once soared to $3.3 billion, with over 140,000 active addresses and 9.59 million transactions. The Foundation also supported multiple ecosystem projects through the RFA (Request for Application) and RFC (Request for Comment) programs and collaborated with institutions like BitGo to provide custody services, enhancing the project's professionalism. Additionally, Berachain's community building and marketing strategies were outstanding in the early stages. Bear-themed NFT series (such as Bong Bears) attracted a large number of users, and airdrops and incentive programs further stimulated participation. These initiatives helped Berachain become a hotspot in the DeFi space in the first half of 2025, ranking as the sixth-largest DeFi chain.
However, as the token price continued to decline, data from DefiLlama shows that its TVL has fallen to $180 million, with 24-hour chain revenue at $84, and the total stablecoin supply on the chain is $153.5 million.
Retail First? Majority of Tokens Allocated to VCs, Major Unlock in February
In its year-end update, the Berachain Foundation admitted that the "retail first" strategy in the crypto market had generally underperformed, leading to a reallocation of resources. This directly triggered a series of issues. First, layoffs and team changes. As part of the strategic adjustment, the Berachain Foundation cut most of its retail marketing team, shifting focus to foundational development. Berachain's lead developer, Alberto, is also leaving to co-found a Web2 company with former banking colleagues.
The Foundation emphasized that the departure was amicable, but this undoubtedly weakens the project's core technical strength. In the community, some developers have already moved to other chains like Monad, further exacerbating the talent drain.
Perhaps the "retail first" strategy promoted by the Berachain Foundation never truly took off.
The project initially emphasized community-driven approaches, but in practice, the incentive mechanisms failed to consistently attract users, and token allocation left retail investors out in the cold.
Although the PoL mechanism is innovative, its complexity (such as the multi-token model, including BERA and BGT) deterred users, leading to a sharp decline in network activity. In November 2025, the project paused the network due to a Balancer protocol vulnerability, fortunately without affecting user funds.
The BERA token price has fallen from a high of $9 to the current $0.7, a drop of over 10 times in just one year for the once so-called "heaven-sent" public chain token.
This collapse stems from a low circulation and high FDV model, leading to artificially inflated prices followed by a rapid crash, and these issues are rooted in Berachain's token distribution mechanism. Early contributors received 16.82% of the total supply, while private sale investors received a staggering 34.31% of the token share, typical of a VC coin. Additionally, NFT holders could receive tens of millions of dollars in tokens, while testnet users received only $60 in airdrops, sparking controversy over "wealth disparity" and marginalizing some loyal users.
This runs counter to the "retail first" slogan; the project is essentially a VC-dominated low-circulation, high-FDV model: early investors entered at $0.82, achieving 10-15x returns, while retail investors bear the crash. Foundation founder Smokey admitted that if done over, he would not sell so many tokens to VCs and has repurchased some to reduce dilution. In October 2025, the Berachain Foundation partnered with Greenlane Holdings to launch BeraStrategy, making BERA a reserve asset, but this failed to reverse the token's decline.
Furthermore, VCs like Brevan Howard's Nova fund hold refund rights, allowing them to request a full refund of $25 million before February 2026, further highlighting Berachain's tilt toward VCs.
Community dissatisfaction is high, with many users calling it the "ultimate fraudulent L1."
On February 6 this year, Berachain will unlock 63.75 million BERA, approximately 12.16% of the total supply. Of the unlocked portion, private sale investors account for 28.58 million. Starting from March this year, BERA will unlock 2.53% of the total supply each month. Given the current liquidity drought, the continuous large unlocks this year may trigger significant selling pressure.
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