Berachain, a first-level blockchain, raised $42 million

The Berachain team, a first-level blockchain, raised $42 million in a funding round led by Polychain Capital.

We’re excited to announce our $42.0M fundraise from leading funds and angels including @polychaincap @hack_vc @daofive @tribecap @citizenxcrypto @shimacapital @robotventures @zmanian @musalbas and many others to build the deepest pools of liquidity in DeFi. pic.twitter.com/GZq04A7n1z

— Berachain ?⛓⚛️ (@berachain) April 20, 2023

Among other investors were Hack VC, Shima Capital, Robot Ventures, Goldentree Asset Management, as well as Zaki Manian, co-founder of Tendermint, and Mustafa Al-Bassam, founder of Celestia.

The blockchain has been under development since the end of 2021. The project aims to allow users to lock tokens in staking, while providing liquidity for DeFi protocols.

“For example, if ETH could be used both to secure the Ethereum network and to interact with other DeFi protocols such as Uniswap and MakerDAO,” said the developer under the pseudonym Smokey the Bera in an interview with The Block.

Berachain has three native coins: the gas token Bera, the stablecoin Honey, and the “non-transferable” governance token BGT.

The Berachain network is built on the Cosmos SDK, using a Proof-of-Liquidity consensus mechanism and is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

According to the developers, the first public testnet will be launched in the coming weeks.

In March, the Radix project, developing a “radically” new blockchain, attracted $10 million at a $400 million valuation.