AI experiments push Bitcoin Lightning above $1B

Traders Union
All News
Crypto
AI experiments push bitcoin

All news

Top Stories

Editors' Picks

Stocks

Crypto

Economics

Currencies

Commodities

Market Voices

Companies

Yaroslav Dmytrenko

20.02.2026

AI experiments push Bitcoin Lightning above $1B — Bitcoin Lightning volume surpasses $1 billion monthly

Monthly transaction volume on the Bitcoin Lightning Network has surpassed $1 billion as a growing number of participants experiment with Bitcoin payments powered by AI. However, total transaction count still trails the 2023 record.

According to a report by Bitcoin services firm River, Lightning Network transaction volume reached approximately $1.1 billion in November 2025, marking a record month with 5.2 million transactions.

“Lightning adoption occurred despite price declines throughout November and relatively modest overall development in 2025. Adoption has largely been driven by exchanges as well as a growing number of businesses accepting Bitcoin payments,” said Sam Wouters, River’s marketing director.

However, total transaction count in 2025 remains below the August 2023 peak, when monthly Lightning transactions reached 6.6 million as users experimented with micropayments in gaming and messaging applications.

Estimated monthly Lightning Network transaction volume and transaction count. Source: River, Cointelegraph.

The report forecasts a similar surge in Lightning transactions in the near future as individuals and businesses increasingly experiment with AI-powered payment use cases.

Lightning moves beyond experiments

Bitcoin blocks are typically added to the ledger every 10 minutes on average, which significantly limits BTC payments, particularly for small in-store purchases.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network helps scale Bitcoin by enabling payments between parties in seconds rather than minutes, supporting Bitcoin’s use as a medium of exchange rather than solely as a speculative asset or store of value.

Lightning reduces transaction costs and settlement time by opening payment channels between two or more parties to process transactions off-chain. When the channel closes, only the net balance is recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain.

According to Cointelegraph, in December 2025 Lightning Network capacity — the total amount of BTC locked in the network to provide liquidity — reached 5,606 BTC as more companies and institutions adopted the technology.

In February, institutional trading and lending firm Secure Digital Markets sent $1 million to crypto exchange Kraken via a Lightning transaction, demonstrating that large sums can be transferred between institutional parties using the scalable Layer-2 network.

As we wrote, Bitcoin ETFs retain $53 billion despite recent outflows, says Eric Balchunas.

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.