Briefing
Infrared, a foundational liquid staking protocol, has surpassed $2 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) within eight months of its launch on Berachain, signaling decisive product-market fit for the Layer 1’s novel Proof of Liquidity (PoL) economic model. This rapid accumulation of capital validates the protocol’s systemic role as a key infrastructure layer, enabling users to maintain liquidity via the iBGT token while actively participating in PoL reward distribution. The protocol’s success directly translates to a robust, capital-efficient flywheel for the entire Berachain ecosystem, as it now controls 167 of the network’s 193 reward vaults, positioning it as the central determinant of yield and governance direction.
Context
Prior to the launch of foundational liquid staking solutions, the prevailing challenge on new Layer 1 networks was the trade-off between securing the chain and maintaining capital efficiency. Users were forced to lock their native tokens for staking rewards, rendering that capital static and unusable within the nascent DeFi ecosystem. This structural limitation fragmented liquidity and suppressed the composability necessary for dApps to bootstrap initial traction. The market required a primitive that could capture the native staking yield while simultaneously injecting liquid capital back into the application layer, solving the fundamental problem of illiquid staked assets.
Analysis
Infrared alters the application layer by creating a synthetic representation of staked governance capital, the iBGT token, which is fully liquid and composable. This specific system transforms Berachain’s native BGT token → which is non-transferable and used for governance → into a yield-bearing asset that can be utilized across other dApps for lending, trading, and collateral. The chain of cause and effect is direct → users deposit BGT for iBGT , which immediately increases Infrared’s control over the PoL reward vaults.
This control allows the protocol to optimize and redistribute yield, which in turn attracts more deposits, creating a powerful, defensible network effect. Competing protocols must now integrate iBGT as a core asset to access the deep, liquid capital base that Infrared has aggregated, effectively making the protocol a mandatory liquidity-as-a-service API for the Berachain DeFi stack.
Parameters
- Total Value Locked → $2 Billion. The cumulative dollar value of Berachain’s native token, BGT, and other assets deposited into the Infrared protocol’s smart contracts.
- Time to Milestone → Eight Months. The duration from the Berachain mainnet launch to the protocol surpassing the $2 billion TVL threshold.
- Ecosystem Control → 167 of 193 Vaults. The number of Berachain’s Proof of Liquidity (PoL) reward vaults currently operated by Infrared, indicating its systemic infrastructure role.
- Liquid Staking Token → iBGT. The liquid token issued to users depositing BGT, enabling capital mobility and composability across the ecosystem.
Outlook
The next phase of Infrared’s roadmap will focus on deepening integration with Berachain’s economic model, expanding opportunities for both users and builders. The innovation of liquid staking a non-transferable governance token is a powerful primitive that will be closely studied by other Layer 1 ecosystems with novel staking or reward distribution models. Competitors will attempt to fork the architecture, but the first-mover advantage in capturing the majority of the PoL vaults establishes a significant competitive moat. This early dominance ensures Infrared’s liquid staking token will become a foundational building block, driving the capital efficiency and composability for the next generation of dApps on the Berachain network.
