What is Infrared (IR)?

By CMC AI
24 April 2026 11:07PM (UTC+0)
TLDR

Infrared (IR) is the native governance and utility token of the Infrared Finance protocol, which serves as the core liquid staking and yield infrastructure layer for the Berachain ecosystem.

  1. Core Infrastructure – It is the foundational protocol for Berachain, enabling liquid staking of BERA and BGT tokens and automated yield vaults.

  2. Governance & Revenue – The IR token grants voting rights and a share of protocol fees to stakers, aligning community incentives with the network's growth.

  3. Sustainable Tokenomics – A portion of fees funds a community treasury and token buybacks, designed to support long-term protocol sustainability.

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

Infrared Finance is built as the essential DeFi infrastructure for Berachain, a high-performance Ethereum-compatible layer 1 blockchain. Its primary value is solving liquidity constraints within Berachain's unique Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) model. The protocol allows users to stake Berachain's native tokens—BERA and the governance token BGT—and receive liquid, yield-bearing versions (iBERA and iBGT). This unlocks capital efficiency, letting users earn staking rewards while using their assets elsewhere in DeFi. By unifying staking, validator operations, and automated yield strategies, Infrared aims to be the backbone of Berachain's yield economy (Introducing IR).

2. Token Utility & Governance

The IR token is central to the protocol's community-driven growth. Holders can stake IR to receive sIR, which confers two key benefits: governance rights over protocol decisions and a proportional share of protocol revenue generated from fees. This design incentivizes long-term participation and aligns tokenholders with the protocol's financial success. The planned feature set turns IR into a vehicle for both influence and income within the ecosystem.

3. Tokenomics & Value Accrual

IR has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Its economics are engineered for sustainability, featuring a fee-driven buyback mechanism. A portion of all protocol fees flows into a community-controlled "Red Fund," which automatically buys back IR tokens from the open market. These tokens can then fund ecosystem incentives, grants, or other initiatives, creating a circular economy that aims to reinforce the token's value as protocol usage grows.

Conclusion

Infrared is fundamentally a DeFi infrastructure token that captures the value of staking and yield-generation activity on Berachain through governance rights and fee sharing. Will its integrated staking and buyback model prove effective in fostering a sustainable, community-owned economy as Berachain adoption grows?

CMC AI can make mistakes. Not financial advice.