The Osmosis Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is strongly backing a proposal for a zero-fee Bitcoin bridge to the Cosmos ecosystem via Nomic. The proposal has garnered about 92% support from DAO members, with 6% abstaining and 1% opposing. Voting will conclude at 23:58 UTC on June 21.

If approved, Osmosis users won't incur bridging or transfer fees for nBTC transactions between Nomic and Osmosis. This change will be implemented through a future software upgrade, pending governance approval from both Nomic and Osmosis.

The initiative introduces a new bridge business model by aligning Nomic’s protocol revenue with the usage of its Bitcoin bridge, instead of direct deposit and withdrawal fees. This revenue share system will replace bridging costs with a share of trading taker fees on Osmosis, promoting nBTC adoption across applications rather than just arbitrage against native Bitcoin.

The upgrade will allow users to utilize their Bitcoin for DeFi activities on Osmosis, such as lending, borrowing, and staking, integrating Bitcoin into the DeFi ecosystem and attracting more users.

Osmosis co-founder Sunny Agarwal praised the proposal as a significant milestone for DAO-to-DAO agreements, highlighting its unique revenue-sharing model facilitated by appchains.

This proposal follows a notable increase in Osmosis trading volume in Q4 2023, with a 6x rise to over $5.3 billion, driven by new features like volume-splitting incentives, adjusted epoch incentives, targeted liquidity, and lower-fee pools.