Audit log

Every state-changing event for Nomic Chain: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions are designed to carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key. Archive coverage is still being backfilled, so each decision below reports its own snapshot status rather than assuming one exists.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-09-20 17:03:25Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
   anchoranchored

   chain

   ●mainnet-betaslot 448,793,592

   sig

   5iUE7B1V3TVM…h8xZ6fbTcopyexplorer ↗

   hash

   8DhAo4Pq74R8…pxMQnFh9copysha256 → base58

   verifying row…full verify ↗

   canonical bytes (15359 B) ▸

   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"a9ed9033-dace-4dd5-b671-0e13181d3aa0","kind":"publish","page_slug":"nomic-chain","published_at":"2026-09-20T17:03:24.955Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Nomic Chain","sections":[{"content":"Nomic Chain is a Cosmos-ecosystem layer-1 blockchain developed since approximately 2018 by Turbofish, a company whose chief executive is Matt Bell. The protocol is written in Rust using a custom application framework called Orga and uses Tendermint consensus. Its primary product is nBTC, a token designed to represent 1:1 ownership of Bitcoin in an IBC-compatible form, secured by a proof-of-stake validator set incentivized with the NOM token. The initial NOM supply was 21,000,000 tokens with a maximum supply of 210,000,000 over nine years. Nomic was integrated into the Cosmos decentralized exchange Osmosis, where nBTC served as a component of Osmosis's Alloyed Bitcoin (allBTC) product — a multi-source synthetic Bitcoin token. The Nomic DAO Foundation published the Nomic Stakenet launch blog post, which described the ATOM airdrop and staking mechanics underpinning the network's bootstrap phase.","heading":"Background and Protocol Overview","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic Stakenet Launch — Nomic DAO Foundation blog","type":"official","url":"https://blog.nomic.io/nomic-stakenet-launch-fc7fa2d6ad10"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic kicks off native Bitcoin bridging to Cosmos — Blockworks","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.com/news/nomic-cosmos-defi-bridging"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bitcoin Is Coming to Cosmos With New Nomic Bridge — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/199875/bitcoin-is-coming-cosmos-new-nomics-bridge"}]},{"content":"On June 25, 2026, an attacker exploited a double-spend vulnerability in Nomic's custom IBC forwarding mechanism. According to reporting by Protos, CryptoSlate, and Blockfence, the attacker combined two separate bugs in Nomic's forwarding logic to generate fraudulent transaction vouchers that were accepted by the Osmosis chain. This allowed the attacker to claim Bitcoin backing that did not exist, minting approximately 40.650602 nBTC across an estimated 25 cross-chain transfers to Osmosis, all without depositing equivalent Bitcoin collateral. Additional exploit activity was reported on July 17, 2026. Osmosis and the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol itself were not compromised according to Osmosis's official statement; the vulnerability was isolated to Nomic's upstream forwarding code. On-chain researcher Rarma traced approximately 671.1 ETH — proceeds from liquidating exploited positions — to Tornado Cash via Ethereum, representing a cash-out of roughly $1 million. The remaining 22.65060846 nBTC had been converted to allBTC by July and was left unmoved in the attacker's address at the time of disclosure.","heading":"Double-Spend Exploit of IBC Forwarding Mechanism (June–September 2026)","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis took 74 days to discover 40-BTC Nomic exploit — Protos","type":"news_article","url":"https://protos.com/osmosis-took-74-days-to-discover-40-btc-nomic-exploit/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis freezes 22.65 BTC after Nomic forwarding bug compromises Bitcoin reserves — CryptoSlate","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptoslate.com/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-forwarding-bug-compromises-bitcoin-reserves/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic nBTC Exploit Creates $3.15M Hole in Osmosis Alloyed BTC — Blockfence","type":"research","url":"https://blockfence.io/nomic-nbtc-exploit-creates-3-15m-hole-in-osmosis-alloyed-btc/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic Double-Spend Leaves a Third of Osmosis Bitcoin Unbacked — CoinPaprika","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinpaprika.com/news/nomic-double-spend-leaves-third-osmosis/"}]},{"content":"The exploit of June 25, 2026 went undetected for approximately 74 days. Discovery appears to have been triggered not by active monitoring but by an operational event: Nomic ceased producing Bitcoin checkpoints on September 6, 2026, and the Nomic chain appeared to halt on September 7, 2026. This prompted Osmosis to investigate its own holdings and identify the reserve shortfall. Osmosis issued its official statement on September 9, 2026 at approximately 09:48 UTC. The 74-day window during which allBTC was approximately 36% unbacked represents a significant ongoing-disclosure risk for Cosmos-ecosystem users who held allBTC during that period without knowledge of the impairment. Protos reported that Nomic's social media account had not posted since 2024 and that the protocol's GitHub had not seen a commit in approximately two years, raising questions about the protocol's active maintenance status at the time of the exploit.","heading":"74-Day Detection Gap and Disclosure","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis took 74 days to discover 40-BTC Nomic exploit — Protos","type":"news_article","url":"https://protos.com/osmosis-took-74-days-to-discover-40-btc-nomic-exploit/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis Freezes 22.65 BTC After Nomic Exploit Hits Alloyed BTC Backing — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/09/09/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-exploit-hits-alloyed-btc-backing/"}]},{"content":"At the time of disclosure, 39.84 nBTC resided inside the Alloyed BTC contract, representing approximately 36.03% of allBTC's total backing. With 110.57 allBTC in circulation at the reporting cutoff, approximately 70.73 BTC-equivalent of valid backing remained. To restore full 1:1 parity, even if the frozen 22.65 BTC were successfully seized, an additional approximately 17.19 BTC would still be required from Osmosis's community pool. Osmosis suspended all allBTC minting, redemption, deposits, and withdrawals on September 9, 2026. The total estimated loss attributable to the exploit was approximately $3.15 million at prevailing Bitcoin prices.","heading":"Impact on Osmosis allBTC Reserve Backing","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis freezes 22.65 BTC after Nomic forwarding bug compromises Bitcoin reserves — CryptoSlate","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptoslate.com/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-forwarding-bug-compromises-bitcoin-reserves/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic nBTC Exploit Creates $3.15M Hole in Osmosis Alloyed BTC — Blockfence","type":"research","url":"https://blockfence.io/nomic-nbtc-exploit-creates-3-15m-hole-in-osmosis-alloyed-btc/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis pauses operations after Nomic Chain nBTC exploit freezes 22.65 BTC — Crypto Briefing","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/osmosis-nomic-nbtc-exploit-freezes-btc/"}]},{"content":"Nomic stopped producing Bitcoin checkpoints on September 6, 2026, and the Nomic chain itself appeared to halt on September 7, 2026. Protos reported that as of its September 2026 coverage, Nomic's official X (formerly Twitter) account had not published any posts since 2024, and the project's GitHub repository had not received a commit in approximately two years. These indicators suggest the protocol may have been in a state of reduced or suspended active maintenance at the time of the exploit. No official statement from Nomic or Turbofish had been published matching the Osmosis disclosure as of the date of available reporting. The lack of active monitoring and maintenance by the Nomic team is cited by multiple outlets as a contributing factor to the 74-day detection gap.","heading":"Chain Halt and Maintenance Concerns","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis took 74 days to discover 40-BTC Nomic exploit — Protos","type":"news_article","url":"https://protos.com/osmosis-took-74-days-to-discover-40-btc-nomic-exploit/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis Freezes 22.65 BTC After Nomic Exploit Hits Alloyed BTC Backing — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/09/09/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-exploit-hits-alloyed-btc-backing/"}]},{"content":"Osmosis outlined a two-step governance recovery plan following the disclosure. First, Osmosis proposed a governance vote to seize the 22.65 BTC frozen in the attacker's address via an emergency chain upgrade. Second, Osmosis proposed drawing approximately 17.19 BTC from the Osmosis community pool to cover the residual shortfall and fully restore 1:1 allBTC backing. Additionally, Osmosis announced it would cancel a pending USDC.noble liquidity redeployment as part of the remediation. Both steps require community approval through on-chain governance voting. A full incident report was expected in the days following the initial disclosure. No court proceedings, regulatory filings, or law enforcement actions had been reported in connection with the exploit as of available reporting.","heading":"Recovery Plan and Governance Response","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis pauses operations after Nomic Chain nBTC exploit freezes 22.65 BTC — Crypto Briefing","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/osmosis-nomic-nbtc-exploit-freezes-btc/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis freezes 22.65 BTC after Nomic forwarding bug compromises Bitcoin reserves — CryptoSlate","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptoslate.com/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-forwarding-bug-compromises-bitcoin-reserves/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic Double-Spend Leaves a Third of Osmosis Bitcoin Unbacked — CoinPaprika","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinpaprika.com/news/nomic-double-spend-leaves-third-osmosis/"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis took 74 days to discover 40-BTC Nomic exploit — Protos","type":"news_article","url":"https://protos.com/osmosis-took-74-days-to-discover-40-btc-nomic-exploit/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis freezes 22.65 BTC after Nomic forwarding bug compromises Bitcoin reserves — CryptoSlate","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptoslate.com/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-forwarding-bug-compromises-bitcoin-reserves/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic Double-Spend Leaves a Third of Osmosis Bitcoin Unbacked — CoinPaprika","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinpaprika.com/news/nomic-double-spend-leaves-third-osmosis/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis Freezes 22.65 BTC After Nomic Exploit Hits Alloyed BTC Backing — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/09/09/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-exploit-hits-alloyed-btc-backing/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic nBTC Exploit Creates $3.15M Hole in Osmosis Alloyed BTC — Blockfence","type":"research","url":"https://blockfence.io/nomic-nbtc-exploit-creates-3-15m-hole-in-osmosis-alloyed-btc/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Osmosis pauses operations after Nomic Chain nBTC exploit freezes 22.65 BTC — Crypto Briefing","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/osmosis-nomic-nbtc-exploit-freezes-btc/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic Stakenet Launch — Nomic DAO Foundation blog","type":"official","url":"https://blog.nomic.io/nomic-stakenet-launch-fc7fa2d6ad10"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nomic kicks off native Bitcoin bridging to Cosmos — Blockworks","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.com/news/nomic-cosmos-defi-bridging"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bitcoin Is Coming to Cosmos With New Nomic Bridge — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/199875/bitcoin-is-coming-cosmos-new-nomics-bridge"}],"summary":"Nomic Chain is a layer-1 blockchain built on a custom Rust-based stack that provides a decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin bridge to the Cosmos ecosystem, issuing nBTC as an IBC-compatible 1:1 Bitcoin-backed token. In September 2026, a double-spend vulnerability in Nomic's custom IBC forwarding mechanism was publicly disclosed after going undetected for 74 days. The exploit allowed an attacker to mint approximately 40.65 unbacked nBTC, leaving roughly 36% of Osmosis's alloyed BTC (allBTC) without legitimate Bitcoin reserves, causing an estimated $3.15 million in losses and prompting Osmosis to freeze allBTC operations and pursue governance-driven recovery.","timeline":[{"date":"2018-01-01","event":"Nomic development begins by early Cosmos contributors at Turbofish, led by CEO Matt Bell.","source":"Blockworks","source_url":"https://blockworks.com/news/nomic-cosmos-defi-bridging"},{"date":"2023-01-01","event":"Nomic Stakenet launches, releasing NOM staking token via ATOM airdrop and activating the nBTC Bitcoin bridge.","source":"Nomic DAO Foundation blog","source_url":"https://blog.nomic.io/nomic-stakenet-launch-fc7fa2d6ad10"},{"date":"2024-01-01","event":"Nomic's official social media account publishes its last post, according to later reporting by Protos. GitHub commit activity also reportedly ceases around this period.","source":"Protos","source_url":"https://protos.com/osmosis-took-74-days-to-discover-40-btc-nomic-exploit/"},{"date":"2026-06-25","event":"Attacker exploits a double-spend vulnerability in Nomic's custom IBC forwarding mechanism, beginning to mint approximately 40.650602 unbacked nBTC across approximately 25 cross-chain transfers to Osmosis.","source":"Protos","source_url":"https://protos.com/osmosis-took-74-days-to-discover-40-btc-nomic-exploit/"},{"date":"2026-07-17","event":"Additional exploit activity occurs. The attacker converts 22.65060846 nBTC to allBTC on Osmosis; these funds remain unmoved in the attacker's address at time of disclosure.","source":"CryptoSlate","source_url":"https://cryptoslate.com/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-forwarding-bug-compromises-bitcoin-reserves/"},{"date":"2026-07-17","event":"On-chain researcher Rarma later traces approximately 671.1 ETH in liquidated proceeds to Tornado Cash via Ethereum, representing roughly $1 million in cashed-out funds.","source":"Blockfence","source_url":"https://blockfence.io/nomic-nbtc-exploit-creates-3-15m-hole-in-osmosis-alloyed-btc/"},{"date":"2026-09-06","event":"Nomic ceases producing Bitcoin checkpoints, triggering investigation by Osmosis into its reserves.","source":"CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/09/09/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-exploit-hits-alloyed-btc-backing/"},{"date":"2026-09-07","event":"The Nomic chain appears to halt.","source":"CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/09/09/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-exploit-hits-alloyed-btc-backing/"},{"date":"2026-09-09","event":"Osmosis issues official statement at approximately 09:48 UTC disclosing the exploit. Osmosis suspends all allBTC minting, redemption, deposits, and withdrawals. An emergency upgrade freezes 22.65 BTC in the attacker's address.","source":"CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/09/09/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-exploit-hits-alloyed-btc-backing/"},{"date":"2026-09-09","event":"Multiple crypto news outlets report the incident. Osmosis outlines two-step governance recovery plan: seize frozen attacker BTC and draw ~17.19 BTC from community pool to restore 1:1 allBTC backing.","source":"CryptoSlate","source_url":"https://cryptoslate.com/osmosis-freezes-22-65-btc-after-nomic-forwarding-bug-compromises-bitcoin-reserves/"}]},"v":1}

   Verify offline (run on your own machine)

   python -m src.verify_decision d5a438e1-d779-48c5-97e5-cfb977cb3256copy