Lightning Network: capacity exceeds record 4,800 BTC

Lightning Network, the second layer of Bitcoin, has just surpassed its new record, bringing capacity to 4800 BTC, the equivalent of $92 million at the time of writing. 

Summary

• Lightning Network breaks its record: capacity reaches 4800 BTC
• Lightning Network: what does 4800 BTC capacity mean?
• Paolo Ardoino and the Arcane report
• Bitcoin under $20,000

Lightning Network breaks its record: capacity reaches 4800 BTC

Undeterred, the capacity of Bitcoin’s Layer 2, Lightning Network (LN), continues to soar as it surpassed its record earlier today, reaching 4800 BTC, the equivalent of $92 million.

#LightningNetwork https://t.co/Q0CaYRhLWD observed:
17,815 nodes
86,338 channels
4,800.829 BTC capacity ($91,831,031)

median node capacity: 0.005 BTC ($95.64)

past 24h:
+19 nodes +440 channels +14.234 BTC ($272,268)#Lightning #LN #bitcoin $BTC

— Lightning Network statistics ⚡ (@LNstats) September 19, 2022

“17,815 nodes

86,338 channels

4,800.829 BTC capacity ($91,831,031)

median node capacity: 0.005 BTC ($95.64)

past 24h: +19 nodes +440 channels +14.234 BTC ($272,268).”

A new milestone for Lightning Network, which only last month, had recorded a 4500 BTC capacity, the equivalent at the time of $104 million. 

That’s right, while the number of Bitcoin locked on LN’s channels has gone up (from 4500 to 4800 BTC), the dollar equivalent seems to have gone down instead, caused by the falling price of BTC. The price of Bitcoin has been hovering below $20,000 for exactly 5 days now, without even touching it anymore. 

Lightning Network: what does 4800 BTC capacity mean?

The Lightning Network’s new capacity record of 4800 BTC means that these Bitcoin can be used within the second layer, enabling increasingly fast and cheap transactions. 

Based on its distribution around the globe, LN appears to confirm August’s ranking, with slightly changed numbers. 

Leading the way continues to be the US with capacity of 2586 BTC, almost 300 BTC more than the previous month, followed then by Germany with 370 BTC, 15 BTC more than August, and Canada with 139 BTC, minus 12 BTC from last month. 

Of these new 4800 BTC, there are also Italy’s 19 BTC, which rises from 17th place in the ranking to 15th. 

Looking at the podium of countries that contribute the most BTC to the Lighting Network capacity, it is also useful to look at the number of nodes and channels that are deployed. The US recorded 1,440 nodes and 23,263 channels, Germany 485 nodes and 7,417 channels, and, finally, Canada with 350 nodes and 3,406 channels. 

Paolo Ardoino and the Arcane report

Two months ago, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of the crypto-exchange Bitfinex, described how BTC’s LN works. 

According to Ardoino, while critics talk about Bitcoin’s scalability and speed issues, this continued rise in terms of capacity seems to illustrate the confidence of the masses with a sharp increase in Lightning Network adoption. 

And indeed, the CTO of Bitfinex, predicts precisely that it will be the Lightning Network that will increase Bitcoin payments, somewhat because many users who use wallets such as El Salvador’s Chivo, are unaware that they are using the LN network while performing BTC transactions. 

Turning to the results of the Arcane Research report, estimates showed that until last summer there were only 100,000 LN users worldwide, while since then that number has literally exploded. 

And in fact, it appears that in March more than 80 million people accessed payments on Lightning Network via app. 

Bitcoin under $20,000

As Lightning Network increases in capacity, the price of BTC for the past 5 days has remained below $20,000, not quite touching it. Not only that, in the past month, Bitcoin’s price has been below $20,000 more times than it has been above. Nowhere near the $24,000 of mid-August, or the $30,000 of early June. 

Even the Fear & Greed index, which measures general sentiment toward the queen of cryptocurrencies, has been scoring 28 (Fear). 

Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is 28. Fear
Current price: $20,267 pic.twitter.com/xwURZvpHVJ

— Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index (@BitcoinFear) September 15, 2022

This means that despite the increases in LN and confidence in general, if the price of the asset collapses, people will unfortunately be influenced by this event in a negative way. 

Indeed, the price collapse can be seen as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and it is that strong emotion of fear, greed or general hype that drives people’s actions at that moment, making everything more negative than it already is.

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