- Binance has integrated the Lightning Network, allowing for easier and cheaper bitcoin deposits and withdrawals
- The integration comes after Binance experienced significant congestion issues during the Ordinals crisis in May, leading to a halt in bitcoin withdrawals
- The Lightning Network has been implemented to address congestion concerns on the Bitcoin network, with Binance joining other exchanges in adopting this solution
Binance has completed the integration of the Lightning Network, making it easier and cheaper to deposit and withdraw bitcoin. The exchange mooted the prospect of integrating the Layer 2 scaling solution in the wake of the extraordinary growth of Ordinals but didn’t put a timeline on it. An announcement yesterday from the exchange explained that the upgrade has gone live and as of now the world’s biggest exchange has joined the move towards the Lightning Network.
Ordinals Forced Binance’s Hand
Binance was one of the worst affected exchanges during the peak Ordinals crisis in May. The exchange was forced to halt bitcoin withdrawals following the surge in BRC-20 transactions which led to some 400,000 transactions being stuck in the queue (‘mempool’) and transaction fees being pushed to a two-year high.
Binance hinted after the incident that it could follow other exchanges and implement the Lightning Network to ease congestion, which it confirmed in late June, although it didn’t give a timeline. A tweet yesterday announced that its implementation has finished and it has gone live:
#Binance has completed the integration of Bitcoin ( #BTC ) on the Lightning Network and deposits and withdrawals are now open.
More details here 👇https://t.co/aIofPdtAGY
— Binance (@binance) July 17, 2023
Concerns Raised in Early Days
Congestion on the Bitcoin network had been a concern for developers since its very early days and first became an issue in 2016 when Bitcoin blocks first became full. The changes brought about by the likes of SegWit have helped relieve the blockchain to an extent, but not to the point where it can happily cope with its function as a payment network and a digital art network at the same time.
The Lightning Network has taken some time to get to the point where it can handle the kind of flows needed by exchanges on a daily basis, time that on-chain solutions such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV have tried to use to usurp Bitcoin thanks to their vastly superior block sizes.
However, with Lightning now available on almost all of the world’s top crypto exchanges and BTC still being the recognized version of Bitcoin, it seems their chance has gone.
