06 Jun 2022
Lightning network capacity at all-time high
The Lightning Network public capacity is now sitting at an all-time high of 3,950 BTC after growing rapidly in May.
Bitcoin's layer-2 scaling solution, the Lightning Network, allows fast micropayments with minimal transaction fees. It works by letting users do transactions off-chain and settling the address balances on-chain later.From April 26th to today, the public capacity on the Lightning Network has grown by 321 BTC, representing a growth of 9%.The growing public capacity on Lightning suggests a growing adoption of the Lightning Network. You can learn more about the Lightning Network in our report “The State of Lightning”.The Lightning Network capacity saw tremendous growth in the second half of 2021, but the growth slowed down considerably as we entered 2022. During the first four months of 2022, the public capacity grew at a slow rate of 11% during the first four months.After the slow start of the year, the growth of the Lightning Network capacity accelerated in May, growing by 6%, which is equal to a yearly growth rate of 100%. The growth in May is the fastest since October 2021.Does this mark the beginning of a new period of accelerated growth in the Lightning Network capacity analogous to what we saw last summer?