According to several announcements on October 31, an upgrade has been completed that brings Bitcoin (BTC) into the Cosmos ecosystem.
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 another group, Nomic, made this possible has completed its interchain upgrade.
Cosmos added that Nomic’s non-custodial Bitcoin bridge now “fully functioning,” expanding its reach in the blockchain industry through IBC.
Nomic itself announced that nBTC is available on Osmosis, a top decentralized exchange from Cosmos, and Kujira, a decentralized crypto ecosystem.
Nomics 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 a day earlier had only bridged 1.85 BTC ($63,109). October 31st. The initial maximum capacity is 21 BTC, currently worth over $737,000
The upgrade progressed in October
Nomic explained in one October 3 announcing that the latest upgrade will allow 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 the latest upgrade, which is called the nBTC Interchain Upgrade. Cosmos is also known for bridging several other blockchains and assets, including but not limited to Ethereum (ETH) and the various ERC-20 tokens.
While the full upgrade to include nBTC support on Cosmos wasn’t completed until late October, Nomic said early this month that it had made certain upgrades ahead of the latest 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 October 3. A representative said the bridge has undergone a security upgrade, adding that the team plans to give some control to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the future.