Binance Plans to Adopt Lightning Network; Which Major Crypto Exchanges are Lightning Ready, and Which Ones are Not?
The significant increase in Bitcoin transaction fees, causing a decrease of $27,832 in BTC values, has motivated one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges to upgrade to the Bitcoin Lightning Network. After experiencing another pause in withdrawals, Binance declared its intention to enable BTC Lightning Network withdrawals, as it can be helpful during such circumstances.
$BTC withdrawals are now resumed on #Binance.
Pending transactions are being processed by replacing them with higher transaction fees.
We'll post another update once these pending transactions are all processed.
— Binance (@binance) May 8, 2023
The Lightning Network (LN) is a system built on top of Bitcoin that allows for fast and inexpensive payments. Even when the Bitcoin mempool, where pending transactions accumulate, is crowded or full, the Lightning Network remains unaffected by these conditions.
Many major cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Bitfinex, River Financial, OKX, Kraken, and CoinCorner, have incorporated the Lightning Network into their platforms. By implementing it correctly, the Lightning Network enables users to withdraw and send Bitcoin instantly from their wallets, bypassing the delays and congestion often experienced on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Fees on Bitcoin are rising, and there are still many Bitcoin (to fiat) exchanges that haven't adopted Lightning deposits and withdrawals 🤔
Technical challenges are not the reason. Solutions like @RiverRLS exist that make integration fast and easy for any business. The issue is… pic.twitter.com/WR5u7cjMCx
— Sam Wouters (@SDWouters) May 8, 2023
Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, is also embracing the Lightning Network. Following remarks from CEO Brian Armstrong about integrating the Lightning Network in the near future, Armstrong demonstrated his familiarity with the layer-2 payments protocol by sending $100 over the Lightning Network to Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall. This showcases Coinbase’s growing interest in utilizing the Lightning Network for faster and more efficient transactions.
European Bitcoin exchanges are also joining the trend of adopting the Lightning Network. Adem Bilican, the chief technology officer of a Swiss-based Bitcoin exchange called Relai, shared with Cointelegraph that their exchange is actively embracing the Lightning Network.
Adem Bilican, the chief technology officer of Swiss-based Bitcoin exchange Relai, believes that Bitcoin is an excellent technology for saving money, but it should also be easy and affordable to spend and send Bitcoin quickly. Bilican believes that the Lightning Network is the ideal solution for achieving this goal, regardless of how high on-chain transaction fees may be.
Swiss Bitcoin exchange Pocket Bitcoin expressed its intention to kickstart the adoption of the Lightning Network in a recent tweet. This decision was prompted by the escalating fees on the Bitcoin base chain, motivating them to explore the Lightning Network as a solution.
As the Lightning Network is still a relatively new solution in the world of cryptocurrencies, it is important to note that payment failures can occur. While the network is expanding and growing naturally, increasing liquidity could aid in its faster scalability. Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer of Bitfinex, provided insight into this situation.
Paolo Ardoino, who is the chief technology officer of Bitfinex, explained that the Lightning Network is still a new solution, and payment failures could occur due to a lack of liquidity. He added that Bitfinex’s node is the most connected and significant node in the entire network, providing liquidity to most other nodes, which makes the chances of payment failure extremely low.
Ardoino, the CTO of Bitfinex, suggested on Twitter that users should request their crypto exchanges to integrate the LN to avoid high fees. Binance and Coinbase are integrating LN, while other exchanges like Gemini, KuCoin, and Bybit have not yet announced plans to implement it.
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