Everything about Lightning in plain words: how it works, live network stats, wallets, nodes, liquidity, payments, AI agents, risks and step-by-step guides. Every fact links to its source.
What it means: a payment of 1,000,000 sats (0.01 BTC) through one median node pays about 119 sats in routing fees. Real payments may cross several nodes, and wallets can add their own fees.
Updated · graph snapshot 2026-10-10 · source mempool.emzy.de (open-source mempool Lightning API, refreshed every 4 hours). Cross-check: 1ML sees 5,920 nodes, 19,767 channels and 2,622 BTC: explorers crawl the graph differently, and none can see private channels. USD at $82,741 per BTC (Coinbase).
Two people lock bitcoin into a shared 2-of-2 address with one on-chain transaction. From then on they just sign new balance sheets between themselves, as many times as they like, without touching the blockchain. Either side can close the channel and take its latest balance on-chain.
A Hashed Time-Locked Contract says: 'these coins go to you if you show the secret behind this hash before block X, otherwise they come back to me'. The receiver creates the secret, so a payment that crosses several channels either completes at every hop or at none.
You don't need a channel with the person you pay. Your wallet finds a path through other nodes' channels and wraps the payment in layers of encryption (onion routing), so each hop only knows the previous and next hop. Each routing node charges a base fee plus a proportional fee in parts per million (ppm).
The classic Lightning invoice is a string starting with lnbc… (often a QR code). It contains the amount, the payment hash, the receiver's node and an expiry time. It is meant to be paid once.
A BOLT12 offer (starts with lno…) is a reusable payment code: the payer's wallet fetches a fresh invoice over Lightning itself each time. It supports blinded paths that hide the receiver's node, and works without a web server. Merged into the Lightning spec on 24 September 2024.
LNURL is a set of community standards (LUDs) where a QR code or link points to a web server that hands your wallet an invoice, a withdrawal or a login challenge. Handy for ATMs, vouchers and 'log in with Lightning', but it relies on that server being online.
A Lightning Address looks like an email (name@domain.com). Behind it is LNURL-pay (LUD-16): the wallet asks that domain for a fresh invoice. Easy to share, but the domain owner sees every payment request and could serve a wrong invoice.
With keysend the payer creates the secret and sends it inside the onion, so you can pay a node by its public key with no invoice. Used by podcast 'value for value' streaming. The downside: no invoice means no proof of payment.
| 1 | ACINQUS | 366 BTC | 1,843 |
| 2 | bfx-lnd0US | 365 BTC | 567 |
| 3 | Binance | 361 BTC | 163 |
| 4 | block-iad-1US | 349 BTC | 674 |
| 5 | bfx-lnd1US | 270 BTC | 515 |
| 6 | LNBiG [Hub-2]UA | 219 BTC | 399 |
| 7 | fixedfloat.comLT | 209 BTC | 181 |
| 8 | okxCA | 189 BTC | 324 |
| 9 | LNBiG [Hub-1]UA | 172 BTC | 415 |
| 10 | StrikeUS | 157 BTC | 338 |
| 1 | ACINQUS | 366 BTC | 1,843 |
| 2 | 1ML.com node ALPHAUS | 7 BTC | 1,656 |
| 3 | CoinGateUS | 18 BTC | 1,325 |
| 4 | LNT.Thailand | 0 BTC | 1,197 |
| 5 | LNT.chengduGB | 1 BTC | 798 |
| 6 | block-iad-1US | 349 BTC | 674 |
| 7 | bfx-lnd0US | 365 BTC | 567 |
| 8 | bfx-lnd1US | 270 BTC | 515 |
| 9 | kappaUS | 33 BTC | 448 |
| 10 | BCash_Is_TrashUS | 46 BTC | 443 |
Node names are self-chosen aliases and can be copied by anyone; trust the public key (click a node to see it on mempool.space).
The most widely deployed node software; powers Umbrel, RaspiBlitz, Voltage, many exchanges. Home of Taproot Assets, Loop, Pool and L402 tooling.
Docs ↗Modular node with a plugin system; first to ship BOLT12 offers. Formerly c-lightning.
Docs ↗Runs ACINQ's large routing node, which is also the LSP behind the Phoenix wallet. Strong on splicing and trampoline.
Docs ↗A library rather than a daemon: wallets embed it (Alby Hub, ZEUS v13, Bitkit and others). LDK Node is a ready-made node built on it.
Docs ↗Latest release tags are read from each project's GitHub every 4 hours. Taproot Assets daemon: tapd v0.8.5.
| Wallet | Model | Status | Platforms | In short | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix (ACINQ) ↗ | Self-custodial, LSP-managed channels LSP: ACINQ | Active | iOS, Android | Channels opened and resized automatically by ACINQ (splicing). Listed again on the US App Store after leaving US stores in May 2024. [src] | |
| ZEUS ↗ | Self-custodial, own node on the phone LSP: Olympus | Active | iOS, Android | v13: on-phone LDK Node by default (embedded LND still supported), optional Olympus LSP, Cashu ecash, or remote control of your own LND/CLN/Eclair node. [src] | |
| Blixt ↗ | Self-custodial, own node on the phone | Active | iOS, Android | Full LND node on the phone, open source; v0.9.0 released 18 Feb 2026. [src] | |
| Breez / Misty Breez ↗ | Self-custodial, no channels (Spark/Liquid/swaps) | Active | iOS, Android | Misty Breez is the open-source reference app for the nodeless Breez SDK (funds on Liquid, Lightning via swaps). Breez now recommends its Spark SDK for new apps. [src] | |
| Alby Hub ↗ | Self-custodial node you host | Active | Cloud, desktop, Docker, Raspberry Pi | Your own node (LDK by default; LND, Phoenixd, CLN or Cashu backends) that connects to apps via Nostr Wallet Connect. [src] | |
| BitBoxApp Lightning ↗ | Self-custodial, no channels (Spark/Liquid/swaps) | Beta | Android (BitBox02/Nova), iOS (Nova) | Hot Lightning wallet whose seed is derived from your BitBox; payments run over Spark. Beta since BitBoxApp 4.52.0 / firmware 9.27.1. Recovery of wallet state still depends on Spark being available. [src] | |
| Muun ↗ | Self-custodial, no channels (Spark/Liquid/swaps) | Active | iOS, Android | On-chain 2-of-2 multisig wallet that pays and receives Lightning via submarine swaps. No channels to manage, but every swap touches the chain, so fees jump when the mempool is busy. [src] | |
| Wallet of Satoshi ↗ | Custodial + self-custodial modes | Active | iOS, Android | Long the simplest custodial Lightning wallet; since July 2025 also a self-custodial mode built on Spark, which brought it back to the US. [src] | |
| Blink ↗ | Custodial + self-custodial modes | Active | iOS, Android | Formerly Bitcoin Beach Wallet (El Salvador). Custodial accounts plus non-custodial Spark accounts; in some countries only the non-custodial mode is offered. [src] | |
| Strike ↗ | Custodial | Active | iOS, Android, web | Custodial bitcoin app and payments company; pays and receives Lightning invoices and Lightning Addresses. [src] | |
| Cash App ↗ | Custodial | Active | iOS, Android (US) | Sends and receives over Lightning; since late 2025 it can pay Square merchants' Lightning QR codes with bitcoin or the USD balance. [src] | |
| Mutiny ↗ | Self-custodial, LSP-managed channels | Shut down | Web, iOS, Android | Shut down at the end of 2024 after an announcement on 5 August 2024; code remains open source for self-hosting. [src] |
Status checked 2026-10-10 against each project's site, release page or app-store listing. Long-term savings belong in a hardware wallet: cold wallets →
Install Bitcoin Core plus LND or Core Lightning from the app store on Umbrel Home or your own hardware.
StartOS server with LND and Core Lightning services; sells ready devices or runs on your hardware.
DIY node image with LND or Core Lightning and many add-ons; fully open source.
Runs LND nodes for you in the cloud; you skip the hardware but trust the host's infrastructure.
To receive you need inbound liquidity: someone's funds on their side of a channel to you. Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) and liquidity markets sell exactly that.
Peer-to-peer, non-custodial market to buy or sell inbound channels; works with LND, CLN and Eclair. 'Rails' is its higher-reliability seller tier.
docs.amboss.tech ↗Non-custodial auction for channel leases, launched November 2020 and bundled in Lightning Terminal. Docs are live; some RPCs are marked deprecated; we could not verify current market activity.
One of the oldest large liquidity providers: a fleet of LND nodes that open inbound channels.
1ml.com ↗ZEUS's LSP: just-in-time channels when you receive and paid channel purchases.
zeusln.com ↗Phoenix opens, splices and closes channels with ACINQ's node; ACINQ is the only peer, which is simple but a single point of dependency.
Open standards so any wallet can buy a channel or a just-in-time channel from any compatible LSP.
| BTCPay Server ↗ | Self-hosted, open source | Free merchant software; accepts Lightning with your own LND, CLN or Eclair node. No middleman holds funds. [docs.btcpayserver.org] |
| OpenNode ↗ | Payment processor | Hosted Lightning and on-chain payment processing with optional conversion to fiat. [opennode.com] |
| Strike for Business ↗ | Payments API | Lightning invoicing and payouts with USD or BTC settlement. [strike.me] |
| Square Bitcoin (Block) ↗ | POS, US | Eligible US merchants accept Lightning payments at the POS; rollout from 10 November 2025, no processing fee at launch. [squareup.com] |
| Binance ↗ | Exchange | BTC deposits and withdrawals via the LIGHTNING network option since 17 July 2023. [binance.com] |
| OKX ↗ | Exchange | Lightning deposits and withdrawals since 19 April 2021 (then OKEx). [coindesk.com, secondary] |
| Kraken ↗ | Exchange | Lightning deposits and withdrawals for all clients since 1 April 2022. [blog.kraken.com] |
L402 uses the web's old HTTP 402 'Payment Required' status: the server answers with a Lightning invoice plus a token; the client pays, retries with the proof and gets access. No account, card or API key needed, which suits software agents. In February 2026 Lightning Labs released Lightning Agent Tools: skills and an MCP server that let AI agents pay L402 APIs (lnget), sell paid endpoints (Aperture) and run nodes with scoped credentials and a remote signer.
A zap is a Lightning tip attached to a Nostr post or profile (NIP-57). Your client asks the recipient's Lightning Address server for an invoice that embeds a signed zap request; after payment the server publishes a public zap receipt, so everyone sees the tip under the post. Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) lets a client spend from your wallet within limits you set.
Taproot Assets (Lightning Labs) lets other assets, such as dollar stablecoins, be issued on Bitcoin and routed over Lightning channels, with edge nodes swapping them to and from sats. Mainnet issuance has been possible since v0.3 (October 2023). Whether Tether's USDT is actually live on it is still unconfirmed by a primary source; see our stablecoins tracker.
Keys live on an internet-connected phone or server. Keep spending money only; savings belong in cold storage.
Cold wallets →If your peer disappears, you close alone: your coins are time-locked for a delay set when the channel opened, and you pay the on-chain fee, which can be large when blocks are full. Small channels can be uneconomic to close.
github.com ↗A cheating peer can publish an old channel state. You must react before the time-lock ends; a watchtower watches the chain for you while your node is offline.
docs.lightning.engineering ↗For your own node, back up the seed AND the channel backup (e.g. LND's channel.backup). Static backups let you recover funds by asking peers to force-close, not to keep channels running.
github.com ↗To receive, someone must have funds on their side of a channel to you. LSP wallets solve this for a fee; node runners buy or lease inbound channels.
A custodial wallet can freeze or lose your funds. An LSP cannot take your coins but can refuse service, and your wallet may depend on it to work.
Lightning is still evolving. In October 2023 'replacement cycling' attacks were disclosed and patched across all four implementations. Keep your software updated.
lists.linuxfoundation.org ↗No. It moves real bitcoin (BTC) through payment channels. There is no Lightning token.
Most payments settle in seconds. Fees are set by each routing node; the live block above shows the network's median base fee and fee rate. Opening and closing channels costs an on-chain fee.
See the live block: nodes, channels and capacity of the public graph. Private channels are not counted anywhere, so the true figure is higher, and different explorers (mempool, 1ML, Amboss) report different totals because they crawl the graph differently.
Custodial apps are simplest but hold your coins. Self-custodial wallets give you the keys; LSP wallets like Phoenix hide channel management; nodeless wallets (Spark, Liquid swaps) skip channels but add other trust trade-offs.
Yes: phone loss without a backup, a custodian failing, a force close during high fees, or running an outdated node. Start small and keep backups.
No for everyday use. Yes if you want the most privacy and control, to route payments, or to accept payments with BTCPay Server.
Yes on Binance, OKX and Kraken, among others: choose the Lightning network on withdrawal and paste an invoice from your wallet.
A reusable payment code you can print or post once, with better receiver privacy than invoices. Supported by Core Lightning, Eclair/Phoenix and LDK; check your wallet.
Statuses and dates come from the project's own site, release notes, app-store listing or specification, unless marked 'secondary'. Network figures are fetched every 4 hours from the public, open-source mempool Lightning API (the independent mempool.emzy.de instance first, mempool.space as fallback; any snapshot older than 3 days is rejected) and cross-checked against 1ML. We put emzy first because mempool.space's load-balanced servers returned different snapshot dates on consecutive requests. Nothing is estimated.
Not investment advice. Lightning wallets are hot wallets: keep only spending money in them. Content checked: 2026-10-10. Bitcoin basics → · Stablecoins on Bitcoin → · Lightning for AI agents →