Here we go again. Another crypto startup raised $15 million promising to solve Bitcoin's scalability problems with a "revolutionary" solution that sounds exactly like every other Bitcoin Layer 2 from the past five years. I've been covering crypto since before the last bubble, and this pitch is getting old.
The Marketing Buzzword Bingo
Let's decode Hemi's pitch:
- "World's largest Bitcoin programmability layer" (impossible to verify)
- "Dual-chain supernetwork" (fancy words for bridging Bitcoin and Ethereum)
- "Proof-of-Proof consensus" (unnecessarily complex name for a security model)
- "$1.2 billion TVL" (citation needed, and TVL is easily gamed)
This is what happens when you take existing technology, add confusing terminology, and hope investors don't ask too many technical questions.
The Bitcoin Problem That Never Gets Solved
Bitcoin has been "limited" to 7 transactions per second since 2009. For 16 years, we've been promised solutions:
- Lightning Network (2018): Still has liquidity and routing problems
- Liquid Network (2018): Centralized federation that defeats Bitcoin's purpose
- Stacks (2021): Smart contracts that barely anyone uses
- RSK/Rootstock (2018): Merged mining that never achieved meaningful adoption
Now Hemi claims they've cracked the code with EVM compatibility and "dual-chain" architecture. Why should we believe this time is different?
The Red Flags Nobody Mentions
The TVL Claims: Hemi reports "$1.2 billion TVL" but doesn't explain where this number comes from or how it's calculated. TVL metrics are notoriously easy to manipulate through self-lending and circular transactions.
The 100,000 Users: Active users in crypto often means wallets that performed one transaction ever. Without more context, this number is meaningless.
The "70+ Integrations": Integrating with wallet infrastructure and DeFi protocols is table stakes. It doesn't prove actual usage or demand.
What They're Actually Building
Strip away the marketing and Hemi is building another Bitcoin sidechain with Ethereum compatibility. The main differences from existing solutions:
- They use both Bitcoin and Ethereum for security (assuming this actually works as claimed)
- They have fresh funding to spend on marketing and developer incentives
- They plan to launch a token (the real revenue model)
This isn't necessarily bad, but it's not revolutionary. It's iterative improvement on existing Layer 2 concepts.
The Token Launch Reality Check
Notice how the funding announcement mentions "token launch preparation" as a use of funds? That's the actual business model here. Build a working Layer 2, launch a token, hope the speculation drives adoption.
This worked for some Layer 2 projects during the 2021-2022 crypto mania. But we're now in 2025, and the market has seen dozens of Bitcoin Layer 2 tokens launch to great fanfare, pump for a few months, then slowly bleed out as users realize there's no actual demand for the product.
The real test isn't whether Hemi can build functional bridging technology - it's whether they can convince developers and users to migrate from established Ethereum DeFi to a Bitcoin-based alternative.