The old L1 approach was to throw money into incentives → pile up data → craft stories → inflate valuations. With this combination, everyone made money. But Berachain has hit the ceiling of this model—while the ecosystem projects seem active and the project team has profited, the underlying token's value just can't go up, and that gap is a bit awkward.

After reviewing Berachain's annual report, I realized they are starting to take real actions to rethink what truly constitutes a blockchain's moat. The conclusion is straightforward: since focusing on the ecosystem can't make the token's value materialize, then just get involved in the business yourself. This is a 180-degree turn—from charging as an intermediary to doing business directly, from valuation driven by narratives to speaking with real revenue.

The logic behind this shift actually hits the pain point of current L1 competition: having traffic and activity alone isn't enough; the token must be genuinely connected to economic value. How to connect? The answer might be to stop relying entirely on third-party ecosystems and instead have the public chain define its own business boundaries.