Bitcoin arrives on Cosmos with Nomic nBTC upgrade

An upgrade that brings Bitcoin (BTC) into the Cosmos ecosystem has been completed,  according to various announcements on Oct. 31.

Cosmos announced in a tweet that its Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) can now transfer nBTC — a token that represents 1:1 ownership of Bitcoin. Cosmos said that another group, Nomic, made this possible as it completed its interchain upgrade.

Cosmos added that Nomic’s non-custodial Bitcoin bridge is now “fully functioning,” furthering its reach throughout the blockchain industry via IBC.

Nomic itself announced that nBTC is available on Osmosis, a top Cosmos decentralized exchange, and Kujira, a decentralized crypto ecosystem.

Nomic’s official dashboard suggests that $105,900 worth of Bitcoin (3 BTC) has already been bridged to the network. Atlas Staking, a genesis validator on Nomic, reported that the upgrade had seen just 1.85 BTC ($63,109) bridged one day earlier on Oct. 31. The initial maximum capacity is 21 BTC, currently worth more than $737,000

Upgrade progressed during October

Nomic explained in an Oct. 3 announcement that the latest upgrade allows users to deposit BTC and use nBTC on various Cosmos applications.

Nomic also stated that there have been few decentralized and seamless ways to use Bitcoin on Cosmos until its latest upgrade, which is termed the nBTC Interchain Upgrade. Cosmos is otherwise known for bridging with several other blockchains and assets, including but not limited to Ethereum (ETH) and its various ERC-20 tokens.

Though the full upgrade adding support for nBTC on Cosmos was not completed until the end of October, Nomic said at the beginning of the month that it had performed certain upgrades in advance of the final upgrade. Other updates show that Nomic launched a staking network for its NOM token in January 2022 and introduced nBTC in July 2022.

Nomic also commented on the project to CryptoSlate on Oct. 3. A representative said that the bridge has undergone a security upgrade, adding that the team intends to give some control to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the future.