Beam crypto refers to BEAM, the native token of the Beam network, a gaming-focused Layer 1 blockchain. The network began in 2021 as Merit Circle, a play-to-earn gaming guild, and it is distinct from an older privacy coin that also uses the BEAM ticker.
Beam crypto technology and architecture
The network launched as an Avalanche subnet focused on gaming. It became a standalone Layer 1 on 16 December 2024 through the Avalanche Etna upgrade and ACP-77, and it moved to permissionless proof-of-stake through the Horizon upgrade in early 2025 (Blockworks; Avalanche).
Beam is EVM-compatible. Its developer documentation states that the network can handle up to 4,500 transactions per second, with transactional finality of approximately one second (Beam Docs). CoinStats lists the token across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche and Base (CoinStats).
Use cases
BEAM is used to pay transaction fees, to stake, and to vote in governance. It also funds ecosystem incentives (Wealthsimple). The ecosystem includes the Sphere NFT marketplace, the BeamSwap decentralised exchange and Beam Bridge for cross-chain transfers (Kraken/Payward). Dreamcash, a consumer trading app built on Hyperliquid, is also named as an ecosystem project (Alchemy).
Who is behind Beam and where is it based?
Merit Circle was founded in 2021 by Marco van den Heuvel, with Mark Borsten and Tommy Quite as co-founders (Messari; Wealthsimple). Van den Heuvel is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Quite is Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer (Blockworks; Crunchbase). Van den Heuvel started the Axie 420 Scholarship program in 2021, which became Merit Circle and later Beam. The team is publicly named and is not anonymous.
Key milestones in the project's history:
- April 2023: Merit Circle announced Beam as a gaming subnet on Avalanche (The Block).
- 26 October 2023: The migration from MC to BEAM opened, with a 1:100 ratio (Findas).
- December 2023: Beam was announced to launch on Immutable zkEVM (The Block).
- 2025: The organisation expanded beyond gaming into AI, trading, compute and finance (Blockworks).
Sources disagree on headquarters. Crunchbase and Seedtable place the company in Gibraltar, while Caplight lists Laguna Hills, California (Crunchbase; Caplight). The Beam Foundation is a memberless non-profit based in the Cayman Islands, with articles of association filed there on 29 October 2024 (Beam Docs; Beam Foundation filing). Blockworks states that the Foundation and Beam Interface are separate legal entities, and that the Foundation has not publicly disclosed any control over Beam Interface (Blockworks).
Tokenomics
Total supply is 57,485,935,307 BEAM, and circulating supply is 50,315,935,307 BEAM. Sources describe the supply as capped and deflationary, with burns reducing it over time (Blockworks).
The original Merit Circle token minted 1,000,000,000 MC on 4 November 2021, equivalent to 100,000,000,000 BEAM at the 1:100 ratio (Blockworks). The Beam Foundation reported quarterly burns of 200,421,263 BEAM in Q1 2025, 113,957,240 BEAM in Q2 2025, 572,020,002 BEAM in Q3 2025 and 40,339,617 BEAM in Q4 2025. No burn was reported in Q1 2026 (Blockworks). Beam's documentation states that protocol fees may be directed to burn smart contracts and that any holder may burn their own BEAM (Beam Docs).
Consensus and network security
After Horizon, BEAM secures the network through proof-of-stake. Holders can delegate to validators, and validators can run a Beam Node and propose blocks (Beam Docs).
To operate a validator, a participant must stake at least one Node Token (ERC-721) and at least 20,000 BEAM. Each node can take up to 200 million BEAM and 1,000 Node Tokens in stake. Validators also pay a continuous fee to Avalanche P-Chain validators, initially set at 1.33 AVAX per month (Beam Docs). A Validator Incentive Grant pays validators that maintain 80% uptime in each 30-day season a share of collected gas fees, weighted by stake (Avalanche).
Partnerships and ecosystem integrations
Luganodes announced a partnership with Beam on 9 March 2025, covering node infrastructure during the Horizon transition (Luganodes). Messari's Q1 2025 report on Avalanche cites Beam Nodes as a driver of network engagement (Messari).
Competitive advantages and value proposition
Beam's stated differentiators are its gaming focus, its sovereign Layer 1 status and its Avalanche-based scalability (Beam Docs). ACP-77 replaced the 2,000 AVAX stake requirement for validators with a pay-as-you-go model, and Beam builds on that change (Blockworks).
Development activity and roadmap
Development in 2025 centred on the Horizon upgrade and Beam Nodes, with validators required to update before 8 April 2025 (X/BuildOnBeam). The Beam team released its first BeamAI report in January 2025 (Beam Newsletter). The Merit Circle website describes six divisions spanning AI, trading and compute (Merit Circle). The sources reviewed do not include a detailed technical roadmap for 2026.
Note that the privacy coin also named Beam, built on Mimblewimble with mainnet live since 3 January 2019, is a separate project with its own supply cap of 262,800,000 BEAM (Beam).