🇸🇦 العربية 🇩🇪 Deutsch 🇬🇷 Ελληνικά 🇺🇸 English 🇪🇸 Español 🇫🇮 Suomi 🇫🇷 Français 🇮🇳 हिन्दी 🇮🇹 Italiano 🇯🇵 日本語 🇰🇷 한국어 🇳🇱 Nederlands 🇳🇴 Norsk 🇵🇱 Polski 🇧🇷 Português 🇷🇺 Русский 🇸🇪 Svenska 🇵🇭 Filipino 🇹🇷 Türkçe 🇻🇳 Tiếng Việt 🇨🇳 中文

What Is Beam?

Beam (ticker BEAM) is the native token of the Beam network, a blockchain built for gaming that has since broadened into a wider ecosystem spanning AI, trading, and other frontier technologies. The network was created by Merit Circle, one of the largest gaming DAOs of the play-to-earn era, and is stewarded today by the Beam Foundation. Note that this Beam is unrelated to the Mimblewimble-based privacy coin that shares the same name and ticker; this article covers the gaming and ecosystem token found at onbeam.com, not the privacy-focused project.

Beam's story begins with Merit Circle, founded in 2021 by Marco van den Heuvel together with Mark Borsten and Tommy Quite. What started as a scholarship program lending Axie Infinity NFTs to players in low-income countries grew into a full gaming DAO, launched in September 2021. In November 2021 the DAO raised roughly $105 million through a public token sale of its MC token, giving it one of the largest treasuries in blockchain gaming. The project also weathered a high-profile governance dispute in 2022, when the DAO moved to cancel a seed investor's allocation before the two sides settled on a buyout, an episode that became a widely cited case study in DAO governance.

In October 2023 Merit Circle rebranded its token from MC to BEAM, with holders converting at a ratio of 1 MC to 100 BEAM during a year-long migration window. The conversion was a redenomination rather than new issuance; BEAM could only be created by converting existing MC. Around the same time the team launched the Beam network itself, an EVM-compatible chain built with Avalanche technology where BEAM serves as the native gas token. Some exchanges, most notably Binance, list the token under the ticker BEAMX to distinguish it from the privacy coin, though most venues simply use BEAM.

The Beam network originally ran as an Avalanche subnet. Following Avalanche's Etna upgrade and the ACP-77 proposal, Beam completed its Horizon upgrade in early 2025 and now operates as a sovereign Layer 1 built on the Avalanche stack, secured by a permissionless proof-of-stake system. Community members can run Beam Nodes or delegate BEAM to validators to help secure the chain and earn rewards. The chain uses ID 4337 and works with any standard Ethereum wallet.

BEAM has a total supply of roughly 58.5 billion tokens, with about 51.3 billion in circulation. The supply has shrunk substantially over time through token burns, first as MC and later as BEAM, with the project reporting that a large share of the original supply has been removed through buy-and-burn programs. The token is used to pay gas on the Beam network, to validate and delegate in staking, to vote in governance, and to buy in-game items and NFTs across Beam's gaming titles.

For developers, the ecosystem includes the Beam SDK, a toolkit that lets game studios integrate wallets, assets, and onchain transactions without exposing players to crypto complexity, alongside tools such as the Sphere NFT marketplace, Beam Swap, and a bridge connecting Beam to other networks. The Beam Foundation also supported the early development of Sophon, a separate consumer-entertainment blockchain built on the ZK Stack that later became fully independent; the two ecosystems continue to collaborate, and BEAM holders have been able to farm Sophon rewards.

In late 2025 Beam announced an expansion well beyond its gaming roots, repositioning itself as an innovation lab organized into divisions covering AI, trading, compute, finance and real-world assets, ventures, and gaming, backed by a large crypto-native treasury. Beam Ventures, its licensed venture arm in Abu Dhabi, runs a $150 million fund and accelerator focused on gaming and frontier technology startups.

Getting Started With Beam

Getting started with Beam usually means holding BEAM, playing games in the ecosystem, or staking on the network:

  1. Step 1: Set up an EVM-compatible wallet such as MetaMask and add the Beam network (chain ID 4337), either manually or through Chainlist.
  2. Step 2: Acquire BEAM on a centralized or decentralized exchange and withdraw it to your wallet, or bridge it to the Beam network using the official Beam Bridge.
  3. Step 3: Explore the ecosystem: browse games built on Beam, trade in-game assets on the Sphere marketplace, or swap tokens on Beam Swap.
  4. Step 4: Help secure the network by delegating BEAM to a Beam Node, and take part in governance votes that shape the ecosystem.

How to Get a Beam Wallet?

Beam is an EVM-compatible network, so any standard Ethereum wallet can hold BEAM once the Beam chain is added.

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most common choice. Add the Beam network with chain ID 4337 (the official documentation provides the RPC details and a one-click Chainlist setup) and you can hold BEAM, interact with Beam apps, and bridge assets. BEAM also exists as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, which MetaMask supports out of the box.

Beam Companion

Beam Companion is the ecosystem's own mobile app, which acts as a companion wallet for managing Beam accounts and in-game assets on the go.

Hardware Wallets

A Ledger or Trezor device can be paired with MetaMask to keep private keys offline, which is recommended for larger BEAM holdings and long-term staking positions.

Beam Resources

How to Buy Beam?

BEAM is available on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. Double-check that you are buying the gaming Beam (the Merit Circle successor) and not the unrelated privacy coin with the same ticker.

Centralized Exchanges

BEAM is listed on major exchanges including Binance (where it trades under the ticker BEAMX), Bybit, Kraken, and Upbit, typically against USD or USDT.

Decentralized Exchanges

As an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, BEAM can be swapped on Uniswap. On the Beam network itself, the official Beam Swap handles token swaps, and the Beam Bridge moves assets between Beam, Ethereum, and other connected chains.

Latest Beam News

Beam's biggest recent shift has been structural. After completing its Horizon upgrade in early 2025, which turned the chain into a sovereign Layer 1 on the Avalanche stack with permissionless proof-of-stake validation, the project announced in late 2025 that it was expanding beyond gaming entirely. Beam now describes itself as an innovation lab spanning AI, trading, compute, finance, ventures, and gaming, with projects such as the Dreamcash trading app and the Aethir and Tactical Compute initiatives featured in its ecosystem alongside its games.

Beam Ventures continues to deploy its $150 million Abu Dhabi fund and has launched an accelerator for early-stage startups in compute, AI, and other frontier sectors. Because the ecosystem is evolving quickly, the official website, documentation, and newsletter are the best sources for the current state of the network and token.