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420.69 million reasons why berachain’s community strategy worked
Tereshchenko Ivan
17.03.2025
15 Min Read
Web3’s wildest community playbook. Berachain went from a meme-fueled NFT drop to a billion-dollar blockchain with a cult-like following. No corporate branding, no top-down marketing just pure internet culture, inside jokes, and real engagement. Here’s how they did it (and what other projects can learn).
Until you finish reading this research, I won’t let my grandma out of the cage
Henlo frens, gather ‘round for the tale of Berachain – a blockchain born from bong-smoking bears and internet humor, now boasting one of the strongest communities in Web3. In an industry where tech often takes center stage, Berachain flipped the script by making community its main character. From irreverent memes to strategic engagement, let’s unpack how this bear-themed upstart built a cult-like following and what other Web3 projects can learn from its playbook.
For those of you with ADHD tendencies, feel free to open a new tab, type in ‘Subway Surfers gameplay,’ and let the smooth dopamine waves carry you through this read.
TL;DR
- Berachain flipped the usual script by building a meme-fueled community first, then shipping a Layer-1 chain.
- Instead of top-down control, they embraced inside jokes (bears, bongs, “420/69” references), playful Discord events, and sub-communities (like The Honey Jar).
- NFT drops (Bong Bears, Band Bears, etc.) built ongoing engagement; airdrop incentives kept testnet users active.
- Proof of Liquidity (PoL) demands real DeFi participation, not just staking, so everyone stays invested.
- The result? A cult-like following that ironically calls itself “degenerates” but still delivers genuine value (apps, content, and hype).
- Key takeaway: Culture can be a moat in Web3. Technical features can be cloned, but a die-hard community is irreplaceable. Berachain’s approach → memes + real tech + open collaboration, proves that if you earn loyalty, you don’t just get users, you get evangelists.
1. What makes berachain’s community unique?
A сulture 'deeply rooted' in memes
While many blockchains treat community-building as an afterthought, Berachain made it the foundation. The project’s very name (‘Bera’) and branding embrace internet meme culture – the founders literally don bear masks at conferences and sprinkle phrases like ‘Henlo’ and ‘Ooga Booga’ into official communications.
This goofy, self-aware attitude (even jokingly calling their project a Ponzi with a straight face) forged a strong sense of identity. Berachain’s community isn’t just users of a blockchain; they’re ‘Beras’ united by an inside-joke-laden culture that perfectly aligns with crypto’s love for humor and weirdness.
Berachain’s origins trace back to the Bong Bears NFT collection – 100 cartoon bears absolutely zooted on cannabis, as seen above. This stoner bear theme became the nucleus of a vibrant community and an entire meme-driven brand. From brown bears in tracksuits to pandas with bongs, the Berachain community adopted these characters as their cultural icons.
NFT roots & strong identity
Uniquely, Berachain didn’t start with a whitepaper; it started with an NFT inside joke. In August 2021 the team launched Bong Bears, 107 one-of-a-kind NFTs of bears smoking weed (minted at the meme-tastic price of 0.069420 ETH each).
The collection caught fire, with DeFi influencers like OlympusDAO’s founders using Bong Bears as their profile pics. Each subsequent NFT drop (Bond Bears, Boo Bears, Baby Bears, etc.) expanded on the bear lore, rewarding holders with new NFTs and pulling more people into the fun.
By weaving a continuous story and inside references (e.g. weed culture, ‘420/69’ humor), Berachain built a community with a shared mythology.
Even years later, holders rarely sell these NFTs; the secondary listing rate stayed under 2%, indicating diamond-handed dedication. In short, Berachain cultivated not just users, but fans who see themselves as part of the joke and the journey.
Source: https://cryptorank.io/ico/berachain#funding-rounds
These antics garnered skepticism at first (‘a chain around bears smoking marijuana? Surely a joke’), but the consistent commit to the bit actually built trust through authenticity.
The community felt like they were part of a rebel band of degens not afraid to have fun. By the time Berachain was still in testnet, its brand was so strong that thousands of people identified as ‘Beras’ without a mainnet even live.
This organic hype manifested in real life. At Token2049 Singapore, over 10,000 crypto enthusiasts signed up for Berachain’s party (packing a multi-story nightclub line to capacity). Attendees joked that the official conference felt like the side show to Berachain’s main event. When a blockchain community can throw a party that outshines a major industry conference, you know you’re dealing with something unique.
2. Engaging users and building an organic following
A. Community first, Product Second
Unlike many projects that build tech and then hope a community shows up, Berachain flipped the order. The founders started as active members of the OlympusDAO community, shitposting in Discord long before writing code. Berachain’s eventual co-founders (pseudonymous Smokey the Bera and team) basically asked,
‘Wouldn’t it be hilarious to mint some bear NFTs for the degens here?’
A Discord message from Berachain co-founder Smokey The Bera joking about a technical hiccup, calling the team “a lil smooth brained” (i.e. a bit dumb) in self-deprecating meme-speak.
Message in the Olympus DAO Discord off-topic channel.
There was no grand master plan; just crypto insiders making each other laugh. Those initial laughs turned into a committed following.
By the time they announced plans for a Layer-1 chain (around April 2022), they already had a tribe of believers eager to go along for the ride. This bottoms-up formation, community before chain, gave Berachain an organic fanbase that projects launching out of nowhere can only dream of.
PapaBear (another co-founder) affectionately tells a member, “You’re the backbone of the community,” showing appreciation amidst the casual tone.
B. Discord as the heart
Berachain formally opened its Discord to the public in April 2022 and immediately gave people a reason to join: a new NFT drop (Band Bears) was timed with the Discord launch, acting as a ‘welcome gift’ for early community members. Inside the server, the team fostered camaraderie through regular events like Rap Nights and Poker Nights on Discord voice chats.
Community members play poker with the founders of Berachein on a discord server.
Imagine your typical crypto project Discord, now add freestyle rap sessions and poker games with the founders in attendance. These playful gatherings broke down barriers between the core team and community, creating a genuine sense of friendship and belonging.
Berachain’s team members also embraced distinct personalities (‘Smokey’, ‘Papa Bear’, etc.) rather than hiding behind corporate PR, which made interactions feel human and fun. By late 2022, the Berachain Discord wasn’t just a support channel; it was a hangout spot where memes flew and ideas for the chain were debated by community ‘Beras’ and devs alike.
C. Empowering the community to lead
Another secret to Berachain’s growing following was how it encouraged community-driven initiatives. A shining example is The Honey Jar, a community-run project led by an early member called Janitoor. Initially just a passionate Bong Bear holder, Jani organized fellow fans into creating content: articles, podcasts, meme contests, even their own NFT series, all celebrating Berachain lore.
Over 2023, THJ snowballed into a mini-ecosystem of its own: a team of 20+ people producing legendary blog posts and ‘Beraculture’ artifacts, and an NFT collection of 16,420 Honeycomb tokens that served as a ‘welfare aggregator’ for Berachain enthusiasts.
Incredibly, 4,229 of those NFTs were given out for free to reward community contributors, and most holders never sold even when prices climbed (1,500+ people held for over a year despite the Honeycombs reaching >0.6 ETH floor). Instead of a top-down marketing strategy, Berachain effectively open-sourced its community growth to passionate fans.
Source: https://nftpricefloor.com/honey-comb-nft
By the time mainnet launch neared, independent groups like THJ had already onboarded 100,000+ users into the ‘Bera’ universe through grassroots content and social media presence. This kind of autonomous, self-propelled growth is rare; the community was spreading the gospel of Berachain well before any official ad campaign.
D. Keeping it real (and fun) on crypto X
The Berachain team’s engagement on X also played a huge role. Rather than formal press releases, they kept the community laughing and hyped with meme-heavy threads, fictional lore, and interactive challenges.
For example, during development delays they joked about launching in ‘Q5 2024’ (a playful way to say it’ll be ready when it’s ready), turning a potentially frustrating delay into a community meme that everyone was in on. Core team members and official accounts would banter openly with community shitposters, blurring the line between ‘insider’ and fan.
This created a sense of co-creation: many in the community felt like they personally influenced Berachain’s direction (and in some cases, they actually did – plenty of features and fixes were crowdsourced from active testers on Discord/Twitter).
By treating its community as partners-in-crime rather than just end users, Berachain built fierce loyalty.
3. Mechanics and growth strategies that sustained engagement
1 . Gamified growth via NFTs
Berachain’s early growth strategy centered on the iterative NFT drops (Bong Bears rebasing into Bond Bears, then Boo Bears, Baby Bears, etc.). This was more than a gimmick; it was a mechanic to retain engagement. Each ‘rebase’ drop rewarded existing holders with new NFTs, meaning if you stayed loyal, your collection (and influence in the community) grew.
Source: https://x.com/DWFVentures/status/1829519517510434855
This engineered a collective game where community members excitedly awaited the next epoch of bears, discussed theories, and traded to complete sets. The result was a steadily expanding community from 100 genesis holders to thousands by the final NFT series, without ever needing paid promotions. The NFTs functioned as both membership badges and investments in the ecosystem’s success (indeed, the combined value of the bear-themed NFTs exceeded $150M by 2023).
http://dune.com/
Berachain proved that thoughtfully designed NFT incentives can bootstrap a vibrant user base long before a protocol is live.
2 . Airdrop anticipation (and lessons learned)
Like many Web3 projects, Berachain dangled the carrot of a future token airdrop to keep testnet users active.
Throughout 2023, the team hinted that participating in the Artio testnet and creating content could make one eligible for $BERA tokens on launch.
Source: https://daic.capital/blog/berachain-onchain-analysis-july2024
This drove massive engagement. Thousands of testers, countless Twitter threads analyzing Berachain’s tech (often by community members hoping to earn their spot in the airdrop). By early 2024, ‘farming’ the Berachain airdrop became almost a sport.
However, when the mainnet finally launched in Feb 2025, the airdrop distribution sparked controversy: many early testnet users felt snubbed while certain NFT holders and insiders got large allocations. The backlash was swift; frustrated members even opened a Discord channel named ‘F*** you bera’ to vent. This could have shattered a weaker community.
Yet, Berachain’s core community resilience shone through. The team responded by improving transparency and highlighting that the majority of tokens (≈65%) still went to community-centric programs despite some missteps.
In the end, Berachain’s engagement strategy of rewarding users did work; over $632M worth of BERA was claimed by tens of thousands of supporters at launch.
The key lesson: incentives matter, but execution must feel fair. Berachain’s community stuck around because they had years of trust built up, but the incident reinforced the importance of clear communication when using token rewards to sustain engagement.
3 . Aligning incentives with community contributions
Beyond the airdrop, Berachain launched a Request for Community initiative that allocated BERA tokens to social, educational, and community-driven projects (podcasts, DAOs, meme pages, meetups, etc.).
By offering grants to these community-run efforts, Berachain empowered people to keep building and spreading the word; especially during bear markets.
The more users contributed, the more tokens they earned, and the stronger their incentive to support the chain’s success.
Unlike typical grant programs, Berachain often funded fun subgroups like ‘BeraBaddies’ or ‘Cub Hub,’ not just dev teams.
Thanks to ongoing support, Berachain’s socials brimmed with creators and meme lords who felt genuinely invested. Unlike projects that fade after launch, Berachain’s community remained active and enthusiastic.
Impressive figures of content overwhelmingly generated by community members. Source: https://www.cookie3.com/
4 . Innovative consensus = user participation:
Berachain’s design drives constant user engagement via its Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus, where you must provide liquidity (e.g., in DEX pools) to earn the governance token BGT.
In other words, you can’t just stake and chill; you have to actively participate in DeFi apps for rewards. Because BGT can’t be bought; only earned. Everyone in the ecosystem has real “skin in the game” and motivation to stay involved.
Source: https://docs.berachain.com/learn/what-is-proof-of-liquidity
Early on, the promise of PoL’s yield flywheel attracted DeFi farmers, and the community turned into a hub for discussing strategies on liquidity looping and yield optimization. Rather than fading post-airdrop, Berachain baked engagement right into the protocol, keeping activity levels high as long as the network runs.
4. Berachain’s approach vs. other Web3 projects
Meme culture vs corporate branding
Berachain’s rise highlights the power of having a soul (even a silly one). Many Web3 projects try to play it safe or professional, ending up with bland branding and lukewarm communities. Compare Berachain’s bear-and-bong motif to, say, Aptos or Algorand. Those projects focused on slick tech and VC backing, but their communities felt mostly transactional or apathetic.
The amount of UGC about Aptos in the last 7 days.
The volume of UGC related to Berachain over the past 7 days.
Berachain showed that leaning into a distinct cultural identity can set you apart in a sea of cookie-cutter chains. Even when outsiders mocked Berachain as a joke, the insiders (the Beras) doubled down, proudly rallying around their memes.
This is reminiscent of how Pepe’s community thrived on absurdity, but Berachain took it a step further: they combined meme culture with serious infrastructure building. That blend is rare.
Projects like Bonk or Floki also amassed memetic followings, but those were pure tokens with no underlying tech innovation. Berachain managed to cultivate Pepe-level hype and ship a novel blockchain. It’s essentially what would happen if an Ethereum or Cosmos-level project had the vibe of a 4chan meme board.
In summary, where other Web3 teams shy away from being ‘too memey’ for fear of not being taken seriously, Berachain proved that embracing meme culture can be a feature, not a bug, provided you can back it up with real development.
Organic hype vs hired hype
Another difference is how Berachain grew its following organically over years, versus the flash-in-the-pan hype cycles we see elsewhere. Projects like Starknet and ZkSync launched massive airdrops and marketing blitzes that did attract huge attention but much of it was from airdrop farmers or mercenary capital. The result? Their token launches pumped and dumped, and community interest waned quickly.
Starknet pulled 711 UGC posts in the last 7 days
Only 408 UGC posts about ZkSync in the last 7 days. For a project that just had a major airdrop, that’s barely a ripple compared to Berachain’s organic wave.
Berachain, on the other hand, slow-cooked its community from 2021 to 2025, rewarding genuine participation (like holding NFTs or contributing content) over quick win farming. Even when Berachain’s token price dipped post-launch in a weak market, its community did not disappear; they had history and faith binding them. This contrasts sharply with many ‘Web3’ projects that measure community purely in terms of Discord numbers or token holders, rather than actual engagement and retention.
Community autonomy
Berachain grants its community an unusual level of autonomy compared to other blockchains, allowing sub-ecosystems like The Honey Jar to form without top-down approval.
The result is a culture reminiscent of open-source development; think Ethereum’s collaborative ethos, but with the meme-fueled chaos of a subreddit. Despite the “degeneracy” label, Berachain’s users produce real value through apps, content, and tools.
No single guru dictates the narrative, so members share responsibility for the chain’s direction. They acknowledge risks up front rather than promising guaranteed profits. Even after tokenomics mishaps or launch delays people stayed committed, actively critiquing the team yet continuing to build.
That self-awareness and stickiness set Berachain apart from more hype-driven projects, leaving it with a community that’s playful yet remarkably persistent.
Brand as moat
Berachain’s real bet is that brand + community form an enduring moat in crypto. Code can be copied, but a die-hard tribe is harder to replicate.
Projects like Bitcoin and XRP have shown how powerful believer-communities can be, even through rough patches.
Berachain couples a strong brand with solid tech, giving it an edge over ‘serious’ blockchains that lose users quickly.
Its bear-themed culture attracted builders to deploy (60+ projects at mainnet), whereas other L1s often have to pay teams to join.
Ultimately, great tech alone isn’t enough; you need an army of believers. Berachain’s unorthodox methods proved highly effective in gathering that army.
5. Key lessons for other Web3 brands from Berachain
In Web3, technology may spark interest, but community sustains it. Berachain’s meteoric community growth; from a ragtag group of ‘degenerates’ sharing bear memes to a movement powering a billion-dollar blockchain, underscores a simple truth: people come for the profits, but they stay for the culture. By fostering a culture that is rich, welcoming, and yes, absurdly fun, Berachain turned its community into its greatest product.
Other projects would be wise to take notes (perhaps on a honey-stained notebook). In a world of ghost chains and mercenary capital, the Berachain community reminds us that WAGMI is more than a meme – with the right community strategy, WE’RE ALL GONNA MAKE IT, together.
Berachain
DeFi
airdrop strategy
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