> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://news.hemi.xyz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Hemi Pulse - October 2 2026 - URL: https://news.hemi.xyz/hemi-pulse-october-2-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-02T23:00:05.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-02T23:00:05.000Z - Description: Hemi's weekly recap on yield, DeFi, ecosystem, and community updates. - Author: Hemi Labs - Tags: Hemi, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Yield **This Week:** **\-**This Week’s Hemi Yield Opportunities **\-**Need to Know DeFi Ecosystem Shifts **\-**This Week in Hemi: Protocol Updates and More **\-**Community Spotlight ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/08/Hemi_SectionTitle_YieldOpportunities.png) | BrownFi on HemiPowered by Algebra's CLAMM infrastructure with Merkl incentives | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Pool | APY/APR | | | [WBTC‑hemiBTC](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/15342484602909041814?ref=news.hemi.xyz)BrownFi pool | up to[8.13%](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/15342484602909041814?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | [Earn →](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/15342484602909041814?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | [WETH‑hemiBTC](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/1976922132721210970?ref=news.hemi.xyz)BrownFi pool | up to[19.84%](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/1976922132721210970?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | [Earn →](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/1976922132721210970?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | [WETH‑USDC.e](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/3759885316334078396?ref=news.hemi.xyz)BrownFi pool | up to[23.67%](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/3759885316334078396?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | [Earn →](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/3759885316334078396?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | [USDC.e‑VUSD](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/5800716454219059942?ref=news.hemi.xyz)BrownFi pool | up to[25.47%](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/5800716454219059942?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | [Earn →](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/5800716454219059942?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | [hemiBTC‑VUSD](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/4022707304947230100?ref=news.hemi.xyz)BrownFi pool | up to[36.63%](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/4022707304947230100?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | [Earn →](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/4022707304947230100?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | [HEMI‑VUSD](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/15936254941414386628?ref=news.hemi.xyz)BrownFi pool | up to[150.04%](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/15936254941414386628?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | [Earn →](https://app.merkl.xyz/opportunities/15936254941414386628?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | Jurisdictional restrictions may apply. APY/APR rates are subject to change with variable market conditions.[Learn more about the partnership →](https://hemi.xyz/blog/brownfi-algebra-finance-and-merkl-partner-to-build-hemi-liquidity-hub?ref=news.hemi.xyz) | | | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/08/Hemi_SectionTitle_EcosystemShifts.png) ## **Key Takeaways** **Bitcoin spent most of the week between $82,000 and $85,000 as the 10-year Treasury yield broke above its 2007 peak, then jumped above $87,000 on a weak September jobs report before giving the gains back.** **The SEC proposed letting investment advisers and funds self-custody crypto in some cases and use state trust companies as custodians, while ESMA asked for EU rules covering DeFi access and staking.** **Robinhood says its stock-token business has already outgrown the SEC's new tokenized securities exemption, as the tokenized stock market reached $3.2 billion.** ## Markets The bond market kept bitcoin in a box until the jobs report. The 10-year Treasury yield traded at 5.304% on September 30, above its 2007 peak, and bitcoin held between $82,000 and $85,000 for most of the week. Spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net $51.2 million from Monday through Thursday, with a $148.7 million outflow on September 30 ending a nine-session inflow streak. Spot ether ETFs saw $100.7 million in net outflows. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/10/01-price-action-oct-2.jpg) On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 29,000 jobs added in September against forecasts of 90,000, and unemployment rose to 4.2%. BTC briefly traded above $87,000 as traders pulled back bets on an October rate hike, then gave back the move by midday. ## Regulatory Shifts #### The SEC proposes a crypto custody rule for advisers and funds On October 1, the SEC proposed custody rules that would let registered investment advisers, registered funds and business development companies hold crypto in self-custody in certain circumstances, and allow state trust companies to serve as crypto custodians. The proposal also updates audit requirements for advisers and broker-dealer custody for funds. Comments open for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Chairman Paul Atkins called crypto "a multi-trillion-dollar asset class to which investors actively seek exposure." #### ESMA asks for MiCA rules on DeFi access and staking On September 30, ESMA published its recommendations for the EU's MiCA review. It asked for clearer criteria to identify genuinely decentralized activity, a new regulated service category for firms that give users access to DeFi protocols, binding ESMA opinions on token classification, and cost and risk disclosures for staking, lending and borrowing. It also wants to bar MiCA-licensed firms from offering non-compliant stablecoin services. #### The UK opens its crypto licensing window The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) began accepting applications on September 30 for its new crypto regime covering trading platforms, custodians, staking and stablecoin issuers. Firms must apply by February 28, 2027, and the regime takes effect October 25, 2027. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/10/02-regulatory-tracker-oct-2.jpg) ## This Week in DeFi ### Circle's Arc opens bitcoin-backed USDC borrowing to any app Circle's Arc released Borrow Kit on September 30, a developer toolkit that lets any application offer USDC loans against Circle Wrapped Bitcoin (cirBTC) through Morpho markets on Arc, in a single transaction with no bridging. Borrowing in the underlying cirBTC market grew from $1.37 million on September 17 to $14.3 million on September 21, with Galaxy and Keyrock supplying USDC. Circle plans to add more collateral types. ### Lloyds and Visa settle cross-border payments in USDC Lloyds Banking Group, Visa and Archax settled $750,000 in live payment obligations in USDC between Jersey and the US, the companies said October 1\. Each settlement in the seven-day pilot cleared in under an hour, including on weekends, with Lloyds running through its Canton Network node. Visa says its stablecoin settlement volume now runs above $20 billion a year across nine chains. ### Robinhood's stock tokens is outgrowing the SEC exemption Robinhood Wallet added Arcus, built by the team behind dYdX, as a routing provider for stock-token swaps on October 1\. Arcus lists more than 190 stock tokens on Robinhood Chain and has cleared more than $5 billion in cumulative volume. A day later, Robinhood's Johann Kerbrat said the company's offshore stock-token volume would already exceed the symbol and volume caps in the SEC's September 17 innovation exemption. Tokenized stocks are now a $3.2 billion market, up 15% in 30 days. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/10/03-chart-of-the-week-oct-2.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/08/Hemi_SectionTitle_ThisWeekinHemi.png) ### ZK miner public beta targeted for next week A public beta of the ZK proving marketplace, the ZK miner and a web interface for using them could open for testing as soon as next week, starting in the beta testers channel. Incentives are still being finalized. A small, short-term pool will reward proofs produced, weighted by the compute complexity of each proving system, and most rewards will go to useful feedback: bug reports, usability suggestions the team adopts, or documented test runs with screenshots. Behind the beta, work continues on the next phase. The team is updating the Ethereum tunnel settlement contracts to consume the ZK proofs the marketplace produces, along with more op-reth integration and testing, code review of Oxygen, and internal review and testing of FastTrack. #### Retroactive rewards and PoP conversion move to mid-October A new hemiStake reward distributor contract is now targeted for the second or third week of October. It will let holders of burned veHEMI NFTs claim the rewards they couldn't collect from the legacy contract. It also adds a separate pool of retroactive HEMI incentives that every veHEMI position from before the September 19 hemiStake launch can claim, even positions that already claimed from the old distributor. PoP points conversion is built into the same contract. Points convert to HEMI as a one-year staked position, grouped by the epoch they were earned in, with retroactive incentives as if they had been staked since then. Holders can also extend those positions in the same transaction to earn an extension bonus. #### Auto-relock is coming to veHEMI After the retroactive rewards contract ships, veHEMI will add an auto-relock toggle that holds a position at a set lock duration. A holder who wants to stay at one year, for example, won't need to re-up manually every week or month. #### Where the 250 million HEMI goes The first-year baseline pool of 250 million HEMI is distributed linearly across 60 epochs, about one-sixtieth each roughly six days, and two epochs have paid out so far. All of it goes to public veHEMI positions, created by users from liquid HEMI or bought from another holder. None goes to team or investor allocations. #### Getting Hemi ready for Glamsterdam Hemi testnet will keep op-geth compatibility through the Glamsterdam upgrade, and the team will publish an op-geth release shortly for testnet node operators. For mainnet activation in early November, node operators should plan for a migration to op-reth for now. The team expects to confirm in about two weeks whether op-geth will be maintained through the mainnet upgrade. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/08/Hemi_SectionTitle_CommunitySpotlight-1.png) #### Hemigo of the Month: Hexusian Hexusian is our Hemigo of the Month. Across eight seasons of Hair Games, Hexusian has finished first seven times, the strongest record in the competition's history. Outside the leaderboard, Hexusian is one of the community's most consistent voices: a longtime Hemi supporter who brings energy to the conversation every day. Congratulations, Hexusian. As our September Hemigo of the Month, he will receive the exclusive Special Hemigo of the Month Hoodie. Want to be the next Hemigo of the Month in October? [**Join Hemi’s Discord**](https://discord.com/channels/1202677849887080508/1530253802098266164?utm%5Fsource=hemi-pop.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=hemi-your-signal-aggregator&%5Fbhlid=a6bcd67a9f35dc55fe5ad9efa3d6144d521bf0ac) and, engage with the community, and who knows? It could be you! ### HairGames Season VIIII Is Here! The Season VIII snapshot is in with rewards to be distributed soon. Season IX is now live, featuring a game built by the community and submitted to the first Hemi Arcade contest. [***Play HairGames.***](https://game.hairtoken.xyz/?ref=news.hemi.xyz) #### Hemi Arcade Contest 2: Turbo Edition Submissions for fully playable onchain games close October 27 at 09:00 ET, and the winners will be revealed on the livestream on October 29. [***Read the official Contest rules.***](https://news.hemi.xyz/hemi-pulse-september-19th-2026/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/10/-SOCIAL--Midweek-With-Max-Announcement--3-.jpg) Midweek with Max covers ongoing engineering, community, and marketing updates. [***Catch the full recap.***](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td7ivacd43Y&ref=news.hemi.xyz) [**Join Hemi’s Discord**](https://discord.com/channels/1202677849887080508/1530253802098266164?utm%5Fsource=hemi-pop.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=hemi-your-signal-aggregator&%5Fbhlid=a6bcd67a9f35dc55fe5ad9efa3d6144d521bf0ac) to send questions for Max ahead of next week’s AMA. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/08/image.png) Protocol Engineering Office Hours are now streaming on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn, every other Wednesday at 8:00 AM PDT, 11:00 AM EDT, and 15:00 UTC. Join the next scheduled session on October 7th. [***Watch last week's session.***](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FzmURPocRs&ref=news.hemi.xyz) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/c6/54c6f660-26c3-4ce3-8ea1-ea7e37a8cc90/content/images/2026/10/04-upcoming-catalysts-oct-2.jpg)