The July 7-8 mainnet upgrade replaces Berachain’s BGT-centered reward model with fixed WBERA emissions and sets the stage for Emissions Return Agreements tied to onchain utility.
Berachain has completed the first stage of its PoL Next upgrade through a July 7-8 mainnet hard fork that removes BGT from governance and reward allocation and consolidates incentives around WBERA and sWBERA. The layer-1 network now uses fixed per-block emissions, with validator operators receiving 0.4 WBERA per block and reward vault distributors receiving 1.305 WBERA per block. The change replaces Berachain’s earlier Proof-of-Liquidity design, which relied on BGT governance votes, boost allocations and multi-token reward flows. Residual BGT allowances were automatically converted during the upgrade, while remaining BGT can be redeemed through the Hub UI. Stakers can now claim rewards in either sWBERA or native BERA, and most vault owners do not need to take action. The upgrade also lays the groundwork for Emissions Return Agreements, or ERAs, a framework intended to direct emissions toward projects that generate onchain revenue and utility rather than those that benefit mainly from boost-voting dynamics. The overhaul follows revisions made during PoL v2 in 2025, and comes after a testnet deployment on May 26-27, 2026 ahead of mainnet execution. Berachain’s original model used BERA for gas and staking, BGT as a non-transferable governance token for routing rewards, and HONEY as a native stablecoin. Moving to a BERA, WBERA and sWBERA-based stack simplifies that structure, but may also sharpen questions about how governance power is distributed now that BGT’s separation from the main economic token has been removed.