This week Berachain caught the attention of the crypto community. It’s a new chain that uses the meme of a bear to draw together a community to support it. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have previously shown that this approach can be successful, however, one downside is that they lack any useful functionality, meaning many people don’t take them seriously.

Berachain differentiates itself from the meme crowd by promising to bring new levels of capital efficiency to DeFi, thanks to being a fully operational blockchain with a three-token design. It purports to solve key liquidity and incentives problems for DeFi users, so may not be just a funny meme.

You can try being early with Berachain by spending time in their Discord server trying to get on their honeylist and/or buying NFTs. The honeylist is Berachain’s name for an allowlist, and it is likely to result in some kind of benefit, as allowlists usually do. This may be an airdrop of a bear-themed NFT that later provides access to a further airdrop of coins. It’s certainly worth a go as it’ll cost you nothing, if you want to head to their Discord, you can access it here.

I want to focus on an NFT-related approach because Berachain’s creators previously launched an NFT collection called Bong Bears, which remain very central to their meme identity. The NFT collections may be the key to unlocking an airdrop, or at least early access to a public sale of tokens. Whilst getting allowlisted for free could give these benefits, often those who are more invested get bigger benefits. Indeed, project leader Smokey The Bera has said that ‘beras [will be] taken care of’. Beras are NFT holders.

Source: Bearchain Discord.

Bong Bears NFTs launched in August of 2021. Aside from their design, what made them interesting was that they were rebasing NFTs. This means that their supply increased, with new tokens issued as part of a new collection derived from the genesis.

As I’ve written previously, collections from teams consistently delivering value to NFT holders tend to do well. When the Bong Bears NFT collection rebased, every holder was given an NFT from the new Bond Bears collection, meaning each person now held two NFTs.

The Bond Bears collection also rebased into a new collection, and again, for each NFT held, another token was given. This time the new collection, released around Halloween, was called Boo Bears; holders would now have four tokens altogether.

Another two rebases followed, this time from collections titled Baby Bears and Band Bears, with one NFT distributed for each of the previous NFTs still held. Assuming someone purchased at the beginning of the collection and held all the way through, they would now have 32 NFTs, with a combined value of about 119 $ETH, based on being able to sell at floor prices on Open Sea. 

Is there anything as heart-warming as devs building cool stuff and giving wealth away? This is the best side of crypto. Rebasing bears are a hand-out that few people saw coming. If only I had known… Ah, the sweet pangs of regret.

In total, there are now about 2,036 NFTs across the five collections. All have seen increased levels of trade and rising floor prices since speculation about a Berachain airdrop started to spread.

What I like most is that several options are available for the potential bear bounty, whether you self-identify as an investor or gambler. Outcomes range from quick short-term profits from buying and selling, to receiving potential airdrop rewards at some unknown point in the future.

A first strategy would be to buy one of the NFTs from the base Band Bears collection. As airdrop speculation increases, so should demand and price. Depending on how long you are willing to wait, there ought to be buyers to sell to and a quick profit.

Waiting until the Berachain speculation quietens may be beneficial. Prices often fall once initial excitement fades, enabling purchases at a lower cost with reduced downside risk. This will be an attractive way to roll the dice if you are more of the gambler mindset and expect most bets to lose. However, if the hype persists and prices hold or rise, you could end up with a less attractive entry point.

Building on these two choices, which mainly relate to the timing of buying and selling, is the question of how many bears to buy and from which collections. Even the more expensive ones are seeing rising prices.

Baby Bears sales prices. Source: OpenSea.

The logic for this resides in the rebasing of the various NFT collections and how the original builders gave value away. What if Berachain does the same with the rumored airdrop? Could holding a better bear result in receiving a bigger airdrop?

The idea of airdrop size relating to holding more or better bears opens up some flexibility for those willing to pursue this avenue of thought. First is buying multiple cheap bears vs. buying fewer but more expensive bears with the same overall value. 

Buying multiple cheap bears allows position size to be adjusted by selling bears as needed, while keeping some for exposure to the potential rewards. There is also the possibility of another rebase of the bear NFTs. Assuming the existing practice of giving away one bear for every bear held remains true, owning multiple bears will be better than owning fewer. 

If taking this approach, consider making the purchases from different wallets. Sometimes rewards are limited to a small number of NFTs per wallet to avoid people gaming the system. By spreading the NFTs out, you’ll still hold multiple bears, but reduce the chances of having any potential claim limited.

In comparison, buying a single more expensive bear forces an all-in approach. Nice when you know you have a winning hand. Rarer NFTs can retain value better than more common floor-priced NFTs, although they can suffer from lower liquidity, making them harder to sell. Overall, purchasing a rarer but more expensive bear might be a way to reduce risk.

I’d say purchasing a more expensive bear will suit those able to tie up capital in the NFT and ride whatever waves the market brings. It’ll let you invest your time in things other than constantly monitoring the market and worrying about position size. For those not wanting this approach, buying multiple bears, at a lower cost, from multiple addresses could be the way to go.

Overall, the launch of Berachain brings a nice opportunity, with options about how to get involved for those that wish to. Before taking the plunge, remember that however Smokey the Bera plans to take care of beras, it’s some time off.

But, unlike most airdrop opportunities, the Berachain tokens that stand to be received are part of a new problem-solving product that looks set to be desired by people rushing to get in, long after you. Whilst they’re enjoying the bear meme, you’ll be on a beach somewhere thanks to their exit liquidity.

As time passes and Berachain releases more details, people will likely become increasingly interested in an airdrop or public sale. The more that happens, the better it will probably be for holders of Berachain NFTs.

Until Next Time

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author held several NFTs, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies. Read our trading policy to see how SIMETRI protects its members against insider trading.