The capacity of the Bitcoin Lightning Network breaks through 3,900 BTC, reaching a record high

Bitcoin's underlying architecture, unfazed by the ongoing bear market, continues to outdo itself—further securing, decentralizing, and accelerating the peer-to-peer network. The same goes for the Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN).

Data from Bitcoin Visuals shows that the capacity of the Bitcoin Lightning Network has reached an all-time high of 3,915.776 BTC, showing a commitment to increasing the speed of Bitcoin transactions and lowering layer 2 protocol fees.

Cumulative Bitcoin capacity across all channels Source: BitcoinVisuals nodes

The Bitcoin Lightning Network was first deployed on the Bitcoin mainnet in 2018 to address Bitcoin’s scalability issues, and has since maintained an upward trajectory in expanding capacity.

However, there was a brief hiatus from this growth on April 18, when LN capacity fell by 7.7% over the course of a week, from 3687.051 BTC to 3402.273 BTC. On May 2, it quickly recovered to 3718.351 BTC, showing the resilience of the network.

Bitcoin Lightning Network Data Source: 1ml

Additionally, 1ml’s stats show that all other aspects of the Bitcoin Lightning Network continue to grow in parallel with Bitcoin’s global adoption.

A data-based prediction by a Reddit user hints at a major disruption in which the crypto industry will shift from bridging between L1 blockchains to L2 blockchains. As this user explained:

“L2 adoption is happening, albeit slowly and suddenly. Behind the scenes, L2 is improving reliability, lowering fees, and increasing accessibility. L2 is still being built and improved, which is fantastic.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the L2 scaling solution leverages the security of L1 and bundles and settles multiple transactions.