Osmosis (OSMO): how it works, supply and reviews

In short

Type: Application-specific Layer 1 blockchain (Cosmos SDK) running a DEX, connected to other chains via IBC
Maximum supply: Maximum supply of 1 billion OSMO, reduced by burns
Risks and caveats: Bridged assets depend on third-party bridges; an unbacked nBTC mint left Alloyed BTC partly unbacked in 2026
Checked: 31 October 2026

Visitor ratings: do you like Osmosis?

Key facts

Ticker: OSMO
Official site: osmosis.zone

Key facts checked on 31 October 2026 against official sources.

What is Osmosis

Osmosis is a cross-chain decentralised exchange that runs as its own proof-of-stake blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem, connected to other chains through the IBC protocol. Anyone can create pools, tokens or orderbook markets, and trades are routed across stableswap, concentrated liquidity and smart-contract pools. OSMO is the native token used for staking, governance and fees.

Network and consensus

Network and consensus — Osmosis
Parameter	Details
Type	Application-specific Layer 1 blockchain (Cosmos SDK) running a DEX, connected to other chains via IBC
Consensus	Proof of stake: OSMO is delegated to validators, with an unbonding period on unstaking
Pools	Stableswap, concentrated liquidity and CosmWasm pools (including an on-chain orderbook), all routed through one pool manager
Smart contracts	CosmWasm smart contracts are supported
Fees	Taker fee of 0.1% by default, with per-pair overrides (e.g. 0.02% for BTC/USDC, up to 0.8% from OSMO into some assets); pool creation costs 20 USDC

Supply and issuance

Supply and issuance — Osmosis
Parameter	Details
Maximum supply	Maximum supply of 1 billion OSMO, reduced by burns
Inflation	Inflationary emissions have ended; staking rewards now come from protocol revenue
Fee burn	Taker fees in other assets buy back OSMO (47.5% to stakers, 52.5% burned); OSMO collected goes 30% to stakers and 70% burned

What OSMO is used for

Staking to secure the chain, earning a share of protocol revenue
Governance voting, proportional to staked OSMO
Transaction fees (other whitelisted tokens are converted to OSMO) and on-chain spam-prevention fees

Who develops and governs Osmosis

Governance: On-chain governance by OSMO stakers; proposals go through forum discussion (3 days minimum), a deposit of 30,000 OSMO and a vote
Developer: Docs are published by Osmosis Labs; code is in the osmosis-labs GitHub organisation
Open source: The project describes itself as open source

History

History — Osmosis
Date	Event
18 June 2021	The osmosis-1 chain launched at genesis, 17:00 UTC
30 June 2025	A tokenomics roadmap proposed cutting effective inflation to zero so circulating supply stays constant or falls
25 June 2026	The third-party Nomic bridge minted 40.65 nBTC with no Bitcoin behind it, which entered the Alloyed BTC pool; disclosed in September 2026
7 September 2026	Validators ran an emergency upgrade (v31.1.0) freezing 22.65 allBTC held by the attacker

Security and audits

The homepage states Osmosis is open source and audited; no dated audit reports were found on the official pages reviewed
nBTC incident (2026): about 39.84 BTC of unbacked nBTC from the Nomic bridge sat in the Alloyed BTC transmuter; part was frozen by an emergency upgrade and about 18 BTC was laundered through Tornado Cash, per a September 2026 forum proposal

Security incidents

Security incidents — Osmosis
Date	What happened	Source
8 June 2022	Exploit: A bug in the Osmosis AMM let users withdraw more from liquidity pools than they had deposited; validators halted the chain at block 4713064. The governance record puts the damage at about 5 million dollars and the shutdown at three days. Osmosis v10.0.0 fixed the JoinPool bug from v9 and the network restarted at 4:00 PM UTC on 12 June 2022. Funds returned: not stated	lcd.osmosis.zone
25 June 2026	Exploit: The third-party Nomic bridge minted 40.650602 BTC of nBTC on Osmosis with no Bitcoin behind it, which entered Alloyed BTC; disclosed after 74 days. Validators froze 22.650608 allBTC held by the attacker in emergency upgrade v31.1.0 on 7 September 2026; about 18 BTC left Osmosis via Tornado Cash. A forum proposal plans to restore backing. Funds returned: Not yet: 22.650608 allBTC frozen; the forum proposal would move it to the Liquidity subDAO and use community pool BTC to cover the rest.	forum.osmosis.zone

Risks and caveats

Bridged assets depend on third-party bridges; an unbacked nBTC mint left Alloyed BTC partly unbacked in 2026
Unstaked OSMO goes through an unbonding period during which it earns nothing and cannot be transferred
Validators can run emergency upgrades that freeze assets, as in September 2026

Official links

Website: osmosis.zone
Docs: docs.osmosis.zone
Source code: github.com/osmosis-labs
Governance forum: forum.osmosis.zone
Governance votes: daodao.zone/gov/osmosis/proposals

Questions and answers

What is Osmosis?

A cross-chain decentralised exchange that runs as its own proof-of-stake blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem, connected to other chains through IBC.

When did Osmosis launch?

The osmosis-1 chain started at 17:00 UTC on 18 June 2021.

What is the maximum supply of OSMO?

1 billion OSMO. Inflationary emissions have ended and part of protocol fees is used to burn OSMO.

How does Osmosis governance work?

OSMO stakers vote on on-chain proposals after forum discussion; a standard proposal needs a 30,000 OSMO deposit.

Sources

How voting works

Votes are anonymous and carry no text. Each device has one vote per item; press the same button again to remove it. Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person is voting. We keep a random device ID in a cookie and a salted hash of the IP address to limit abuse — no names, no accounts. Votes are visitors’ opinions, not investment advice.

Page updated: 2026-10-31