Berachain pulls a one-token disappearing act, hard-forks BGT out of the spotlight 🐻

Berachain will execute a hard fork on Wednesday at 4 pm UTC that ends emissions of its non-transferable governance token BGT and shifts network incentives to a wrapped version of its main BERA token, the Berachain Foundation said in a Tuesday X post. Following the upgrade, the network will distribute fixed amounts of Wrapped BERA (WBERA) as block rewards, replacing the dual-token structure that previously split functions between transferable BERA and BGT.

The foundation framed the change as a move toward a "simpler" token economy, with rewards anchored to sWBERA, the staked version of WBERA. WBERA emissions began Tuesday, and Wednesday's hard fork will halt BGT emissions. Reward vaults and liquid staking incentives tied to BGT are scheduled to be phased out in the days following the upgrade. The foundation said annual percentage rates could triple after the change, while cautioning that yields may fluctuate during the first few days.

BERA traded lower ahead of the fork, falling 7% in the 24 hours to 8:34 am UTC and extending its decline over the past year to 88%, according to CoinMarketCap. Network activity remained muted over the same window, with Berachain's total value locked (TVL) down $1.79 million, or 3%, to $56 million, ranking the chain 37th by TVL on DefiLlama. Over the past 24 hours, the network generated $41 in chain fees and $3,359 in application revenue while distributing $14,816 in token incentives.