{"investigation":{"slug":"hemi","entity_name":"Hemi","trust_score":35,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":-7,"confidence":0.4,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Hemi is a Bitcoin-Ethereum 'supernetwork' layer-2 built by Hemi Labs (founders Jeff Garzik and Max Sanchez), which raised $15 million in 2024 and launched its mainnet in March 2025. An online rumour in October 2026 listed it among chains that might be wound down. The sources reviewed show very low on-chain fees and small TVL, but no official shutdown or wind-down announcement was found. The September 2026 Genesis Drop exploit is covered separately at /hemi-genesis-drop-merklebox-exploit and is not restated here.","sections":[{"content":"The requester reports a social media post (@Oxvietnguyen, roughly 126K views, October 2026) listing chains as possible shutdown candidates. That post was not retrieved or verified. Searches for a Hemi shutdown, wind-down or sunset announcement returned no such statement from Hemi Labs or any news outlet. Hemi's post-mortem on its September 2026 exploit, as summarised by Crypto Economy, states that the rest of its infrastructure was not affected and that the investigation and recovery effort remains open. This is a negative finding from limited search: the absence of an announcement is not proof that none exists, and the project's own channels were not directly checked.","heading":"Shutdown rumour and official announcements","sources":[{"url":"https://crypto-economy.com/hemi-releases-post-mortem-on-genesis-drop-exploit-that-drained-124-5-million-tokens/","name":"Crypto Economy: Hemi post-mortem on Genesis Drop exploit","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"DefiLlama pages for Hemi, seen only as undated search snapshots (direct fetch returned HTTP 403), show chain fees of roughly $22 to $30 over 24 hours, chain revenue of about $22, app fees of roughly $2,000 over 24 hours, and 24h revenue of $15 with 30-day revenue of $98 on the revenue ranking page. Reported TVL snapshots conflict: about $1.71 million on the protocol page, about $7.1 million in another reference, and a figure near $821,554 in another snapshot. Bridged TVL of about $10.59 million and lending TVL of about $41,819 were also listed. These snapshots are inconsistent and undated, so current values should be checked on DefiLlama directly. Such figures are far below the roughly $440 million TVL reported at the March 2025 mainnet launch, which suggests a large decline, although the methodologies may differ. Low fees and revenue are consistent with the rumour's premise but do not themselves establish that a shutdown is planned.","heading":"TVL, fees and revenue","sources":[{"url":"https://defillama.com/chain/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi chain page","type":"on_chain","credibility":2},{"url":"https://defillama.com/revenue/chain/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi revenue rankings","type":"on_chain","credibility":2},{"url":"https://defillama.com/protocol/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi protocol TVL","type":"on_chain","credibility":2},{"url":"https://coinedition.com/hemi-mainnet-launches-with-over-440m-tvl-50-ecosystem-partners-and-a-surge-of-incoming-liquidity-commitments/","name":"Coin Edition: Hemi mainnet launches with over $440M TVL","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"HEMI has a reported fixed supply of 10 billion tokens. A 2025 article around the Binance HODLer airdrop listing reported an all-time high near $0.12 in September 2025. Aggregator snapshots from mid-2026 (BingX, updated 2026-07-17) and a sidebar quote on a September 2026 article show prices around $0.005 to $0.006, and DefiLlama showed an FDV of roughly $46.9 million in a snapshot. Taken together these would imply a decline of well over 90% from the reported peak, but the snapshots are inconsistent, undated or from price pages and are low-reliability. Upbit cancelled a planned HEMI listing 18 minutes before launch following the September 2026 exploit, according to Grafa.","heading":"HEMI token performance","sources":[{"url":"https://grafa.com/en/news/crypto/upbit-drops-hemi-after-124-5m-token-exploit","name":"Grafa: Upbit drops HEMI after exploit","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/hemi-token-airdrop-binance-listing-2025","name":"Coingabbar: Binance HODLer airdrop for Hemi","type":"news_article","credibility":3},{"url":"https://bingx.com/de-de/price/hemi","name":"BingX: HEMI price","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://defillama.com/chain/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi chain page","type":"on_chain","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"Hemi Labs was founded by Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik and Max Sanchez, co-founder of Veriblock, which Hemi Labs acquired in 2023 and whose Proof-of-Proof consensus underpins Hemi. In September 2024 the company announced a $15 million round led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital and Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Crypto.com, Alchemy, SALT Fund and others. Sanchez declined to disclose the valuation. No later funding round was found, so runway is unknown. A March 2026 listing mentioned a commitment of up to 100 BTC from Warsaw-listed BTCS S.A. in an institutional yield deal; that was seen only as a snippet and is not confirmed.","heading":"Team and funding","sources":[{"url":"https://www.fortune.com/crypto/2024/09/18/hemi-labs-raises-15-million-from-binance-to-launch-advanced-modular-blockchain-network-for-bitcoin-and-ethereum","name":"Fortune: Hemi Labs raises $15M","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240917913695/en","name":"Business Wire: Hemi Labs funding announcement","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://blockworks.com/news/hemi-labs-fundraise-crossover-network","name":"Blockworks: Hemi Labs fundraise","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2024-09","event":"Hemi Labs announces a $15 million round led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital and Big Brain Holdings.","source":"Fortune","source_url":"https://www.fortune.com/crypto/2024/09/18/hemi-labs-raises-15-million-from-binance-to-launch-advanced-modular-blockchain-network-for-bitcoin-and-ethereum"},{"date":"2025-03","event":"Hemi mainnet launches, reported with about $440 million TVL.","source":"Coin Edition","source_url":"https://coinedition.com/hemi-mainnet-launches-with-over-440m-tvl-50-ecosystem-partners-and-a-surge-of-incoming-liquidity-commitments/"},{"date":"2025-09","event":"HEMI token reaches a reported all-time high near $0.12 around its Binance airdrop listing period.","source":"Coingabbar","source_url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/hemi-token-airdrop-binance-listing-2025"},{"date":"2026-09","event":"Genesis Drop MerkleBox exploit drains about 124.5 million unclaimed HEMI; Upbit later cancels a planned HEMI listing. See /hemi-genesis-drop-merklebox-exploit.","source":"Grafa","source_url":"https://grafa.com/en/news/crypto/upbit-drops-hemi-after-124-5m-token-exploit"},{"date":"2026-10","event":"Unverified social media post lists chains as possible shutdown candidates; no official Hemi announcement found.","source":"Requester context (post not retrieved)","source_url":"https://crypto-economy.com/hemi-releases-post-mortem-on-genesis-drop-exploit-that-drained-124-5-million-tokens/"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://crypto-economy.com/hemi-releases-post-mortem-on-genesis-drop-exploit-that-drained-124-5-million-tokens/","name":"Crypto Economy: Hemi post-mortem","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260911162948/https://crypto-economy.com/hemi-releases-post-mortem-on-genesis-drop-exploit-that-drained-124-5-million-tokens/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-09-11T16:29:48+00:00"},{"url":"https://defillama.com/chain/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi chain page","type":"on_chain","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261008194618/https://defillama.com/chain/hemi","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-10-08T19:46:18+00:00"},{"url":"https://defillama.com/revenue/chain/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi revenue rankings","type":"on_chain","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20251224063344/https://defillama.com/revenue/chain/hemi","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2025-12-24T06:33:44+00:00"},{"url":"https://defillama.com/protocol/hemi","name":"DefiLlama: Hemi protocol TVL","type":"on_chain","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://coinedition.com/hemi-mainnet-launches-with-over-440m-tvl-50-ecosystem-partners-and-a-surge-of-incoming-liquidity-commitments/","name":"Coin Edition: Hemi mainnet launch","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://grafa.com/en/news/crypto/upbit-drops-hemi-after-124-5m-token-exploit","name":"Grafa: Upbit drops HEMI","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260918204609/https://grafa.com/en/news/crypto/upbit-drops-hemi-after-124-5m-token-exploit","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-09-18T20:46:09+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/hemi-token-airdrop-binance-listing-2025","name":"Coingabbar: Binance HODLer airdrop for Hemi","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://bingx.com/de-de/price/hemi","name":"BingX: HEMI price","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261008205217/https://bingx.com/de-de/price/hemi","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-10-08T20:52:17+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.fortune.com/crypto/2024/09/18/hemi-labs-raises-15-million-from-binance-to-launch-advanced-modular-blockchain-network-for-bitcoin-and-ethereum","name":"Fortune: Hemi Labs raises $15M","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260721200425/https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/09/18/hemi-labs-raises-15-million-from-binance-to-launch-advanced-modular-blockchain-network-for-bitcoin-and-ethereum/","credibility":1,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-21T20:04:25+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240917913695/en","name":"Business Wire: Hemi Labs funding","type":"official","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://blockworks.com/news/hemi-labs-fundraise-crossover-network","name":"Blockworks: Hemi Labs fundraise","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260721200431/https://blockworks.com/news/hemi-labs-fundraise-crossover-network","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-21T20:04:31+00:00"}],"source_tags":[],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-code-investigator","created_at":"2026-10-08T19:13:53.884342+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-08T21:01:53.259305+00:00"},"source_quality":{"total":11,"tier1":0,"tier2":0,"tier3":0,"unrated":11},"follower_count":null}