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name: bitcoin-l2-hemi description: | Hemi Network: hybrid Bitcoin + Ethereum L2 with "superfinality" via Bitcoin PoW. Chain TVL under $1M across 44 listed protocols (DefiLlama, September 2026), down from a ~$330M peak in June 2025. USE WHEN: building cross-chain DeFi, evaluating Hemi vs BOB. allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob

Hemi Network

Hybrid L2 by Hemi Labs combining Bitcoin and Ethereum. Featured "superfinality": uses Bitcoin's PoW to provide an additional finality layer beyond Ethereum's.

Architecture

• EVM execution with Solidity.
• Anchored to Ethereum for DA.
• PoW finality from Bitcoin: state checkpoints periodically committed to Bitcoin chain.
• Bridge: Multi-chain bridge to BTC, ETH, and other L2s.

Superfinality

After Ethereum-style finality, Hemi additionally requires Bitcoin checkpoint:

• Provides "irreversibility" akin to Bitcoin's beyond Ethereum's.
• Trade-off: longer effective finality time.

Position

Small and shrinking as of September 2026. DefiLlama put Hemi chain TVL at ~$0.84M on 16 September 2026; L2BEAT total value secured was ~$0.80M on 16 September 2026. DefiLlama lists 44 protocols on Hemi, only 13 of them above $10k. That is down from a DefiLlama peak of ~$330M (June 2025) and ~$14M as recently as January 2026.

A further ~$42M of native HEMI sits in Hemi Staking; chain TVL excludes it as the chain's own token (DefiLlama, September 2026). Historically Hemi was among the more active "hybrid Bitcoin L2" projects through 2025 - treat that framing as history, not current position.

Use cases

• Cross-chain DeFi.
• Apps requiring strongest finality from both chains.
• NFT bridges Bitcoin Ordinals ↔ Ethereum NFTs.

Limitations

• Complex security model.
• Dual chain dependency.

See also

• bob/SKILL.md
• merlin/SKILL.md
• bsquared/SKILL.md