Hemi, the world’s largest programmability layer on Bitcoin, has closed a $15 million growth round, with participation from YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), Republic Digital, HyperChain Capital, Breyer Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Crypto.com, DNA Fund, Selini Capital, Protein Capital, Quantstamp, and Web3.com, amongst others. With over $1.2 billion in total value locked on the network, the funding will fuel further ecosystem growth on Bitcoin.
With Bitcoin’s $2.3 trillion market cap, its potential in decentralized Finance (DeFi) remains largely untapped. Until now, developers had to choose between Bitcoin’s unmatched security or the flexibility of DeFi on other chains. Hemi eliminates that trade-off, merging Bitcoin’s trust and resilience with Ethereum programmability into a supernetwork, finally unlocking Bitcoin for use in modern financial applications.
Jeff Garzik, co-founder of Hemi and one of the earliest Bitcoin core developers, said: “Bitcoin doesn’t need to be reinvented; it just needs the right tools around it. Hemi provides DeFi protocols with a familiar way to build on Bitcoin, without requiring new skills, compromising on security, or sacrificing decentralization. Our partners share our conviction that Bitcoin can support more than just value transfer; it can support an entire ecosystem.”
Hemi creates the platform for applications that allow users to earn, borrow, trade, and build on Bitcoin, while seamlessly connecting to other blockchains. The breakthrough Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM), a full Bitcoin node embedded inside an Ethereum Virtual Machine, creates a powerful new layer that fuses Bitcoin’s security with Ethereum’s flexibility, unlocking a new frontier for programmable bitcoin.
The co-founders of Hemi are Jeff Garzik, a renowned former Bitcoin core developer; Maxwell Sanchez, the inventor of Proof-of-Proof (PoP) consensus protocol; and crypto pioneer and investor Matthew Roszak. Today, Hemi is trusted by over 100,000 verified users and supported by a vibrant community of more than 400,000 members. This momentum is driven by a network of over 70 ecosystem partners, including industry leaders such as Sushi, LayerZero, MetaMask, and Redstone, among others.
Alex Odagiu, Investment Partner of YZi Labs, said, “For YZi Labs, belief in the team and belief in the product go hand in hand. Jeff, Maxwell, and Matthew have decades of experience, and the breakthroughs they’ve engineered with Hemi show they know how to turn that experience into working systems. Hemi creates a new foundation for Bitcoin-native applications that the whole industry has been waiting for.”
Joseph Naggar, CEO and CIO of Republic Digital, said, “Bitcoin’s role as the world’s most secure settlement layer is unquestioned, but the lack of scalable programmability has limited its potential. Hemi directly addresses this by marrying Bitcoin’s security with Ethereum’s developer ecosystem through its supernetwork architecture. With the Hemi Virtual Machine, Proof-of-Proof consensus, and cross-chain ‘Tunnels,’ the platform enables new layers of Bitcoin DeFi, restaking, and asset programmability. We view this as critical infrastructure, and we are proud to back a team with the technical rigor and vision to deliver it.”
Stelian Balta, Founder of HyperChain Capital, added, “Hemi’s dedication to unifying Bitcoin and Ethereum through a smart tunnelling network is very commendable. Their technical proficiency and vision for scalable solutions make them a valuable addition to the blockchain community.”
In preparation for Hemi’s highly anticipated token generation event, with details soon to be finalized and announced, it has recently unveiled the tokenomics for $HEMI.