Binance confirms Bitcoin Lightning Network integration in the works

COVER ART/ILLUSTRATION VIA CRYPTOSLATE

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance confirmed it was working to integrate the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network (LN) for deposits and withdrawals activities on its platform, according to a June 20 tweet.

Binance will join Bitfinex, Kraken, and OKX as one of the largest trading exchanges to integrate Lightning, according to a GitHub repository by LN advocate David Coen.

Crypto community spot Binance lightning nodes

During the past week, several crypto community members highlighted Binance’s LN nodes on the network. Amboss, a data analytics for the LN, corroborated these claims, tweeting that Kraken’s largest channel was connected to a Binance node.

On June 16, Bitcoin Magazine reported that Kraken and OKX had opened channels with a Binance-related node.

Meanwhile, Amboss said the Binance node was not publishing its connection information, preventing other nodes from connecting freely.

Binance’s tweet confirmed that it was operating the “new Lightning nodes,” adding that:

“There’s still more tech work to be done. We’ll update once Lightning is fully integrated.”

 

CryptoSlate contacted Binance for additional commentary but did not receive a response as of press time.

In May, the exchange hinted that it would integrate LN withdrawals after it experienced issues with the volume of pending transactions on its platform. The exchange paused BTC withdrawals at the time, citing network congestion and high gas fees.

Lightning Network adoption grows

The LN is a “layer 2” payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin that enables faster, cheaper transactions between nodes and aims to solve BTC scalability issues, thereby improving user experience and potentially driving broader adoption of Bitcoin.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that Bitcoin Lightning’s adoption has grown steadily over the past year to an all-time high of 5,700 BTC as of June 20, with Binance’s ongoing integration expected to further boost the network’s usage.

Glassnode data further shows that over 3,000 new channels have been added to the network since the beginning of the year.