Bitcoin Lightning Network transmission capacity continues to grow
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The ability of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to facilitate transactions continues to trend upward, approaching all-time highs.
According to the LookIntoBitcoin website, which tracks Lightning Network statistics, the network can handle transfers of more than $210 million, or approximately 4,980 Bitcoins (BTC).
This is close to the all-time high of $223 million reported on December 6. The Lightning Network reached its highest ever capacity in July, when approximately 5,400 BTC could be transferred across the network. Last November, the indicator almost reached similar levels again before falling slightly.
Since its inception in early 2018, the Lightning Network’s capacity growth has been impressive. Despite volatility in broader crypto market activity during the 2022-2023 bear market, Layer 2 networks continue to exhibit a consistent upward trend. Proponents believe that the Lightning Network can enable faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions and may be the key to greater adoption of Bitcoin payments in retail.
Critics argue that the Lightning Network remains highly technical and difficult for the average user and poses centralization risks due to its graph-based topology. Regardless, network capacity indicators indicate continued developer and user activity even as the crypto industry faces headwinds.
While the dollar value of the largest Lightning transfers follows last year’s peak, the stability of the upward trend points to the growing legitimacy of Bitcoin’s Layer 2 scaling solution. As adoption expands, decentralized payments networks look set to challenge all-time high transmission capabilities in the coming year.
