Coinbase Integrates Bitcoin Lightning for 100 Million Users

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has integrated Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, enabling faster and cheaper BTC transactions for users in the United States (excluding New York).

As the largest Bitcoin exchange globally in terms of users, trading volume, and asset storage, Coinbase’s adoption of Lightning is a major win for Bitcoin scaling solutions. Lightning moves transactions off-chain, enabling near-instant Bitcoin payments with much lower fees.

Coinbase has been working to implement Lightning support for several years to further its mission of building a payments network with a low cost per transaction. This integration finally unlocks instant and low-cost Bitcoin payment capabilities for the exchange’s large US user base.

By partnering with Lightspark, a Lightning infrastructure provider co-founded by former PayPal executive David Marcus, Coinbase now gives users the option to withdraw or send Bitcoin via Lightning.

Transactions are processed in seconds and cost a fraction of the cost of on-chain BTC payments.

Marcus celebrated the milestone by saying, “I’m so excited to join you on this journey to bring Lightning to hundreds of millions of people in over 100 countries. It’s a huge milestone for the entire network and for Bitcoin.”

The Bitcoin community has long-awaited Lightning integration from Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Lightning Network has seen impressive growth in recent years, but Coinbase’s integration marks the protocol’s biggest leap toward broader adoption, expanding the network to millions of new users.

Coinbase’s adoption demonstrates its belief in the network’s maturity and highlights the promise of layer 2 scaling that will help Bitcoin evolve as a global payment method.