Omni Network (OMNI)

Overview

Omni Network (OMNI) is an Ethereum-native interoperability protocol designed to connect Ethereum’s many rollups into one unified system. Instead of treating each rollup as a separate island, Omni acts like a high‑speed coordination layer that lets applications and users move messages, actions, and liquidity across rollups with low latency. By doing this, it aims to make Ethereum feel like a single operating system again, even as it scales through many Layer 2 networks. (coingecko.com)

The project secures its cross‑rollup messaging with restaked ETH drawn from EigenLayer and combines that with OMNI staking, creating a dual‑staking model. This setup is intended to give apps Ethereum‑level security while still enabling fast confirmations. On top of that, Omni introduces a “universal gas” idea: a fee model that abstracts away the need to juggle different gas tokens on different rollups. (gate.com)

In September–October 2025, the team rebranded Omni to Nomina (ticker: NOM). Exchanges and infrastructure providers began swapping OMNI to NOM at a 1:75 ratio, while the underlying mission of connecting rollups stayed the same. Readers will still see the original name and token referenced widely, so this guide uses “Omni Network (OMNI)” for clarity and notes the rebrand where relevant. (nomina.io)

History & Team

Origins and vision

Omni was started to address a growing challenge in Ethereum’s rollup‑centric roadmap: fragmentation. As more rollups launched, users and assets spread out, and developers had to deploy the same app many times to reach everyone. Omni set out to solve this by building a low‑latency, Ethereum‑secured layer for cross‑rollup communication and shared execution. Early public testnets (Origins, Overdrive, and Omega) drew hundreds of thousands of users and processed millions of transactions, giving the team real‑world feedback before mainnet. (chainwire.org)

Founders and contributors

The project was founded by Austin King (CEO) and Tyler Tarsi (CTO), both with computer science backgrounds from Harvard. Prior to Omni, King founded Strata Labs (acquired by Ripple/Xpring) and worked on large‑scale payment systems; Tarsi worked in quantitative trading and machine learning. The broader engineering group includes alumni from NEAR, zkSync, PayPal, Meta, and other well‑known teams. (gate.com)

Funding and backers

Omni has reported raising roughly $18 million from investors such as Pantera Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Jump Crypto, Hashed, The Spartan Group, Coinbase Ventures, and others. These investors supported Omni’s work on interoperability secured by Ethereum restaking. (rootdata.com)

Rebrand to Nomina

On August 12, 2025, the team announced that Omni would rebrand to Nomina. A network upgrade on September 23, 2025 migrated tokens on the Omni EVM from OMNI to NOM automatically, and centralized exchanges began to complete 1:75 swaps for custodial holders in the following weeks. (nomina.io)

Technology & How It Works

Core architecture

Omni separates consensus and execution. Its consensus layer uses high‑performance CometBFT (the modern Tendermint), while its execution layer is the Omni EVM, a standard EVM environment. The two are connected through modern interfaces (ABCI 2.0 and the Engine API) inside Omni’s open‑source Octane framework. This design targets sub‑second confirmations and very low query latency while keeping the developer experience familiar for Solidity builders. (news.omni.network)

Restaking‑secured interoperability

Interoperability can be fragile if it relies on weak trust models. Omni’s answer is to draw cryptoeconomic security from restaked ETH via EigenLayer, so cross‑rollup messages are validated by operators with real value at stake. In parallel, OMNI can be staked to add a network‑native layer of incentives, forming a dual‑staking model. Over time, Omni also moved to incorporate additional restaking sources such as Symbiotic to diversify security. (gate.com)

Cross‑rollup messaging and pre‑confirmation

Omni’s protocol focuses on low‑latency cross‑rollup messaging. Validators observe rollup states, agree on messages, and commit them to target networks quickly. This reduces the long waiting periods and complex trust assumptions typical of legacy bridges. At mainnet launch, the system emphasized fast, secure interoperability among major Ethereum‑compatible networks—including Ethereum L1, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base—to cover the bulk of activity in the ecosystem. (chainwire.org)

The Omni EVM

The Omni EVM acts like a global coordination layer. Developers can deploy logic once and orchestrate application behavior across many rollups from a single place. This helps avoid repetitive multi‑deployment work and eases upgrades. Because it’s EVM‑compatible, the same tools—Solidity, popular frameworks, and standard wallets—transfer over. (gate.com)

Universal gas marketplace

Different rollups may accept ETH for gas, but the ETH on one rollup can’t pay fees on another. Omni introduces a universal gas marketplace that lets fees be “paid at source.” A user can initiate an action on one network; internally, the protocol converts the fee into OMNI and pays relayers/validators to execute on the target rollup. OMNI can also be used directly as the fee token on the Omni EVM. The goal is to remove the overhead of juggling different gas assets and make cross‑rollup actions feel native. (news.omni.network)

Tokenomics & Utility

Asset format and roles

OMNI is an ERC‑20 on Ethereum L1 with a maximum supply of 100,000,000 tokens and a canonical contract at 0x36e66fbbce51e4cd5bd3c62b637eb411b18949d4. Tokens can be bridged to the Omni EVM for staking. Within the protocol, OMNI is used to pay gas for Omni EVM transactions and cross‑rollup requests, to stake and secure the network (often alongside restaked ETH), and to participate in governance as it launches. According to the project’s docs, OMNI gas fees on the EVM are burned. (docs.omni.network)

Distribution and vesting

At genesis, OMNI’s initial circulating amount represented a small portion of the total, with the rest allocated across an ecosystem fund, community programs, core contributors, investors, and advisors. Public materials from the launch period describe the distribution roughly as follows: Ecosystem Fund, Community Fund, Core Contributors (Team), Private Sale Investors, Advisors, a Public Launch allocation, and a Launchpool allocation. The team and investor allocations follow multi‑year schedules with a 12‑month cliff and semiannual unlocks thereafter, while advisor tokens include a small portion unlocked at genesis with the remainder vesting over three years. The project later clarified that unlocks tied to core contributors, investors, and advisors began on May 2, 2025, following its legal “trigger date” mechanics. (rootdata.com)

To broaden ownership at the start, the Omni Foundation ran the OMNI “Genesis” airdrop. Three percent of supply was set aside for eligible users, with a 45‑day claim window after claims opened. The foundation also launched a genesis staking option for early participants. (news.omni.network)

Economic model in practice

• Gas and fees: OMNI powers the Omni EVM and universal gas flow; fees spent on the EVM are burned, creating a direct link between usage and supply. (docs.omni.network)
• Security and staking: Validators can receive delegated OMNI, and the protocol combines this with ETH restaking for cryptoeconomic security. (docs.omni.network)
• Governance: Staked OMNI is intended to grant voting power as on‑chain governance rolls out, letting holders help decide upgrades and integrations. (docs.omni.network)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Cross‑rollup applications

Omni enables “global” applications that span many rollups without separate deployments on each one. A lending app could orchestrate positions across L2s; a game could coordinate state between player communities on different chains; or a wallet could route actions to whichever rollup is best for the user at that moment. Early public materials highlighted out‑of‑the‑box support for Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, covering the majority of TVL and activity. (chainwire.org)

Gas abstraction for users

The universal gas marketplace removes the need to keep many small balances of different gas tokens. Users can initiate transactions from where their funds already are, and the system handles the rest under the hood. This clearer user experience is one of Omni’s core practical benefits. (news.omni.network)

Operator and partner landscape

Omni has worked with professional node operators and infrastructure partners to run the network’s validation layer. Public posts have named operators such as Galaxy and A41, and the team has also collaborated with restaking providers, including a move to integrate Symbiotic alongside EigenLayer for diversified security. (news.omni.network)

Advantages & Challenges

Advantages

• Ethereum‑secured interoperability: By reusing Ethereum’s security budget through restaking, Omni reduces the need for new trust assumptions in cross‑rollup communication. (gate.com)
• Developer familiarity: The Omni EVM keeps tooling simple—Solidity, standard clients, and common frameworks—while adding cross‑rollup orchestration. (gate.com)
• Low‑latency design: The Octane framework and CometBFT‑based consensus aim for sub‑second confirmations and responsive RPC, improving the feel of cross‑chain apps. (news.omni.network)
• Gas abstraction: A universal gas model reduces friction for users and simplifies fee handling across chains. (news.omni.network)
• Backing and ecosystem interest: Well‑known investors and operators have supported the project’s roadmap and operations. (rootdata.com)

Challenges

• Adoption across many rollups: Realizing Omni’s vision depends on broad integration by rollups, apps, and wallets, and on sustained operator participation.
• Complex, modular stack: Running separate consensus and execution plus cross‑rollup messaging introduces engineering complexity compared with single‑chain systems. (news.omni.network)
• External dependencies: Omni’s security leans on restaking layers (e.g., EigenLayer). Changes or constraints in those ecosystems can affect Omni’s roadmap. (cointelegraph.com)
• Naming transition: The 2025 rebrand to Nomina created a two‑name footprint (Omni and Nomina) that users will see across exchanges and apps during the migration period. (nomina.io)

Where to Buy & Wallets

Omni Network launched its token through Binance Launchpool in April 2024, followed by exchange listings. OMNI was made available on Binance, and Coinbase provides a retail “How to buy Omni Network” page for U.S. customers. (binancechain.news)

In September–October 2025, several centralized exchanges migrated OMNI to Nomina (NOM) at a 1:75 ratio. KuCoin, for example, completed the swap and rebrand on October 14, 2025. On platforms that have finished the migration, buy, deposit, or withdraw the NOM ticker instead of OMNI. (kucoin.com)

For self‑custody, OMNI is an ERC‑20 token on Ethereum with the canonical contract 0x36e66fbbce51e4cd5bd3c62b637eb411b18949d4. Standard EVM wallets such as MetaMask, Rabby, and hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor support ERC‑20 assets. OMNI can be bridged to the Omni EVM for staking via the project’s staking portal. (docs.omni.network)

Regulatory & Compliance

Omni is a base‑layer interoperability protocol with a utility token used for gas, staking, and governance. That functional profile places it among “utility‑style” cryptoassets in many discussions. In the United States, there is ongoing debate over how different cryptoassets fit within existing securities and commodities rules, and projects often avoid making definitive claims about legal status. In the European Union, the MiCA framework distinguishes between e‑money tokens, asset‑referenced tokens, and other cryptoassets; a network gas and staking token like OMNI generally falls into the “other” category rather than the payments‑or‑stablecoin buckets. These observations describe common regulatory frameworks and do not change from day to day, though the specifics of any listing or jurisdictional access depend on local rules and venue policies.

On religious compliance, perspectives vary. Because Omni provides infrastructure and does not rely on interest‑based lending in its design, many observers view the network’s model as compatible with Islamic finance principles. Others prefer a formal Shariah audit before making a clear determination. In practical terms, staking rewards on the Omni EVM come from protocol incentives rather than interest, and governance use does not involve prohibited activities; however, individual scholars may still evaluate particular contracts or integrations case by case. (docs.omni.network)

Future Outlook

Omni’s technical roadmap centers on deeper performance and broader coverage. On the performance side, the open‑source Octane framework continues to evolve for low‑latency consensus and flexible execution, including paths that help rollups adopt decentralized sequencers without sacrificing speed. On the security side, the project began with EigenLayer restaking and has moved to incorporate other restaking providers such as Symbiotic to diversify its cryptoeconomic base. (news.omni.network)

Ecosystem‑wise, expect continued expansion across major rollups (for both messaging and orchestration), more operators, and more apps that treat cross‑rollup actions as a default feature. The network’s identity change to Nomina in late 2025 was framed as a brand update rather than a shift in mission; the focus remains on making “any action on any chain” feel simple and fast. (chainwire.org)

Summary

Omni Network set out to make Ethereum’s rollup world feel unified. It does this by pairing an EVM execution layer with a high‑performance consensus engine, then securing cross‑rollup messaging with Ethereum restaking. The OMNI token ties the system together by powering gas, staking, and governance, and the protocol’s universal gas marketplace reduces friction for everyday users. With experienced founders, well‑known backers, and an operator network drawn from established infrastructure teams, Omni built a strong foundation for cross‑rollup apps. The project’s 2025 rebrand to Nomina (NOM) changed the name on many exchanges but not the underlying goal: secure, low‑latency interoperability across Ethereum’s many rollups. (news.omni.network)