At Cosmoverse 2025, Cosmos Labs shared a roadmap that shows the direction the ecosystem is taking. A major area of work will be the Cosmos Hub, the main chain that connects and secures the wider network. Cosmos Labs’ presentations highlighted key priorities for this new chapter: expanding enterprise adoption, enabling payments and tokenization, and reinforcing the core fundamentals of the Cosmos Hub.

Trusted by banks and industry leaders

When Cosmos began almost a decade ago, the idea of multiple blockchains seemed unrealistic — Bitcoin and Ethereum dominated everything. Yet in 2025, the crypto landscape now counts hundreds of chains, and Cosmos’ belief in decentralization through inter-connected networks has been validated. What once seemed ambitious — a world built on hundreds of interoperable chains — is now reality. Today, over 200 blockchains use Cosmos technology, securing more than $70B in value and exchanging over $1B monthly through IBC, its native and never-hacked cross-chain protocol.

Cosmos is quickly becoming the go-to blockchain stack for enterprises and institutions looking to build their own Layer 1 networks. Cosmos Labs Co-CEO Maghnus Mareneck highlighted that Cosmos is powering the largest network of connected L1s in the world, trusted by major players in finance and beyond. Leading companies and banks — including Figure, Ondo, Progmat, SWIFT and SMBC — are now building on Cosmos, alongside more than 200 other projects such as Polygon, Ripple, Binance and Hyperliquid.

The ecosystem is also expanding with new chains, including two CBDCs developed in partnership with Peersyst, as well as additional networks in banking, finance and government. These developments show that Cosmos is not just a blockchain platform, but a robust foundation for the next generation of global finance.

Cosmos is no longer just a developer-focused experiment — it’s maturing into a foundational layer for global finance. With high performance, cross-chain interoperability, EVM compatibility and real corporate adoption, Cosmos is positioning itself not only as a technology stack, but as a core infrastructure for the next decade of blockchain innovation.

From blockchains to global financial rails

Cosmos Labs Co-CEO Barry Plunkett presented how Cosmos is upgrading its technology to become the strongest foundation for global on-chain payments and real-world asset tokenization.

The roadmap aims to make Cosmos chains faster, more connected, easier to use and better suited for businesses. Today, only a tiny fraction of global assets and payments exist on-chain, which means the opportunity ahead is enormous and Cosmos wants to be the infrastructure layer that supports it.

1. Cosmos sees its strongest product-market fit in payments & tokenization.
Traditional payment systems are slow, limited by bank hours and expensive. Blockchain networks allow instant, global, low-fee payments 24/7, making them a superior solution for the future of finance.

2. Massive upgrades to performance (speed & throughput).
Cosmos aims to exceed 10,000+ transactions per second, enabling financial institutions to operate on-chain without bottlenecks. Work is underway to parallelize processes and make the network smarter, so high performance is achievable “out of the box,” not only by expert teams.

3. Next-level interoperability (IBC expansion)
Cosmos is close to finalizing direct connections with Ethereum, Solana, and major Layer-2 networks, making cross-chain transfers seamless. A new tokenization standard will allow assets to move across many chains without wrapped tokens or technical friction, a major step toward real-world adoption.

4. More control for enterprises (Proof-of-Authority option).
Many institutions don’t want to issue a token or rely on public staking. Cosmos will allow them to choose their validator set, align with regulations and run secure networks tailored to their needs.

5. New Cosmos fleet management platform.
Running a blockchain is still too complex — so Cosmos is building a platform that will make launching and maintaining networks dramatically simpler, without centralizing control.

Strengthening the Hub

The Cosmos Hub and its native token ATOM, are poised to benefit significantly from the growing adoption of blockchain-based finance. To capture this opportunity, Cosmos Labs is implementing a strategic roadmap designed to strengthen both the Hub and ATOM’s fundamentals.

This includes three key initiatives:

1. A stronger Hub team led by Robo, now supported by Hypha taking full ownership of technical work, with Cosmos Labs guiding the overall roadmap. Planned technical upgrades include TokenFactory enablement and CometBFT performance improvements, along with other foundational enhancements.

2. An updated delegation program will promote Hub health, improve validator stability, reward valuable contributions through Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and help bootstrap the community. The program will now focus on increasing validator uptime, which ensures that the network runs smoothly and reliably. It also encourages validators to actively participate in governance, helping guide important decisions for the Cosmos ecosystem. A key innovation is the move to transparent and automated processes, meaning validators no longer need to apply manually for delegations. Instead, the system evaluates and adjusts allocations regularly, rewarding contributors proactively.

3. A comprehensive tokenomics research and redesign process will be launched in collaboration with the community and independent research firms over the coming months, aiming to align ATOM’s design with the evolving needs of enterprise adoption. The goal is to explore new economic models that better support modern enterprise use cases, such as token issuance for businesses and large-scale financial services on-chain. By rethinking incentives and token allocation, the Hub and ATOM can become more flexible, sustainable and aligned with real-world adoption, ensuring the network can accommodate thousands — or even billions — of users while maintaining high performance, security, and long-term stability.

ATOM stands to benefit from revenue and fees generated by licensing Cosmos stack-oriented products to banks and institutions, creating new utility and long-term value accrual for the token. Cosmos Labs is actively inviting input from community members, validators, developers and researchers through working groups and forums, ensuring that ATOM’s evolution reflects both enterprise requirements and the broader community’s vision.

Sovereign Ethereum-compatible chains for Institutions

Cosmos EVM offers a revolutionary approach for enterprises looking to leverage Ethereum’s robust ecosystem without sacrificing control, privacy, or compliance. Unlike public Ethereum or Layer-2 networks, which are congested, costly and reliant on third-party vendors for critical services, Cosmos EVM allows organizations to fully own and operate their infrastructure.

Enterprises can run all nodes, control who connects and set custom configurations for performance and privacy. Oracles, automation and compliance are built directly into the protocol, eliminating recurring vendor costs and simplifying operations such as dividend distribution or regulatory checks.

Using the modular and flexible Cosmos SDK, institutions can customize governance modules, protocol upgrades and account management while retaining full Ethereum compatibility. This ensures developers can seamlessly use familiar Ethereum tools and ecosystems without compromise. Cosmos EVM leverages IBC for secure, native bridging with zero historical hacks, allowing institutions to control asset flows across multiple chains while avoiding third-party bridge risks.

Cosmos EVM empowers organizations to deploy fully sovereign, compliant, and high-performance Ethereum-compatible blockchains in minutes, combining the best of Ethereum with unmatched control, security, and flexibility for institutional adoption.

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Cosmos is entering a new chapter focused on scalability, security and interoperability, paving the way for broader adoption, more efficient interchain operations and a robust foundation for the future of blockchain innovation.