Midweek with Max: Staked hemiBTC Preview, V2 First Looks, and Year-End Releases

This week’s Midweek with Max centered on near-term launches, long term security, and a holiday-adjusted roadmap. With Thanksgiving in view, the team confirmed that the staked hemiBTC launch is moving from this week to next so it can land when users are more active. The agenda focused on core engineering progress, a first look at staked hemiBTC, and an extended Q&A that ranged from incentives and OG roles to Polkadot and quantum computing.

On engineering, Max confirmed that V2 is effectively live on testnet, staying in sync, with one remaining task to shut down the old infrastructure it replaces. Support for the Ethereum Fusaka upgrade is implemented and is now going through testnet and mainnet testing. Mainnet node operators will receive instructions they must follow before the December 3 Fusaka change, including handling a major TVC database upgrade, likely with prebuilt data directories to simplify the process. Work on ZK provability continues, the hBitVM whitepaper is in final edit and may appear as a draft in Discord ahead of publication, and a dedicated hBitVM AMA is planned. Herblock distribution and PoP point conversions into liquid HEMI tokens remain active priorities, delayed slightly by V2 and Fusaka.

The featured product segment introduced staked hemiBTC, which goes live next week. Users will deposit hemiBTC and receive an equal amount of staked hemiBTC as an ERC20 that they can trade, use as collateral, or hold as a yield-bearing position. Under the hood, the strategy will initially route into a Morpho-based vault and evolve over time as new Bitcoin yield sources are added. Allocations will be rebalanced dynamically, so users can treat staked hemiBTC as a simple, fungible “set it and check in later” position while the protocol manages strategy changes. A second phase will expose individual strategies directly to advanced users who want fine-grained control over their risk and yield profile.

Max and John also addressed incentives. The team is moving away from long, monolithic “seasons” toward continuous liquid rewards that feel more intuitive and provide faster feedback. For now, the Merkl campaign page is the source of truth for liquidity mining incentives, including Sushi pairs, lending markets, Spectra, and the hemiBTC Clearstar reactor that powers staked hemiBTC at launch. The next veHEMI reward claim is expected around the first week of December. VBK and Herblock items are still in progress, and the OG role work is mainly blocked on the remaining UI pieces.

The episode closed with reminders to watch for the staked hemiBTC launch next week, the hBitVM whitepaper and AMA, the upcoming hemiBTC dashboard, and, for those who celebrate, wishes for a good Thanksgiving before the next round of releases.