Binance, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, announced on Tuesday that it had set up Lightning nodes on the Bitcoin network in order to eventually offer Lightning-based Bitcoin deposit and withdrawal services to users.
Binance is working to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network for deposits and withdrawals, the exchange tweeted. However, there’s still more tech work to be done. We’ll update once Lightning is fully integrated.
The Lightning network is a second layer of the Bitcoin blockchain, which is designed to speed up transaction times and decrease network congestion. It does this by setting up payment channels that conduct off-chain transactions between users with fees of a few cents.
In May, Binance said it would integrate the Lightning network to ease deposit and withdrawal activity for users. At the time, Binance had temporarily paused Bitcoin withdrawals due to network congestion, which caused some concern among users about the exchange’s reserve funds.
Kraken and Bitfinex already offer Lightning network services to users, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong suggested in an April tweet that the exchange would offer Lightning network to users in the future. As of Tuesday morning, the Lightning network holds just under $145 million worth of Bitcoin meant for quick payments.