Share this article
OKCoin to Integrate Bitcoin's Lightning Network in Q1
The feature, added to alleviate fee pressure during Bitcoin’s bull market, could be live within a month's time.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 11:00 a.m. Published Jan 22, 2021, 2:00 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
OKCoin is the latest crypto exchange to support Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Per details shared with CoinDesk, the exchange is in the final phases of integrating the secondary scaling network. It should be live within three to four weeks, OKCoin’s team told CoinDesk.
“We have been a bitcoin exchange since 2013, and while we are excited about [decentralized finance] and other assets, we know bitcoin is the foundation of the entire industry Bitcoin's network is often congested and has high transaction fees, particularly during bull markets,” OKCoin CEO Hong Fang told CoinDesk.
OKCoin Adopts Lightning
The Lightning Network is a technology stack built on top of Bitcoin which facilitates faster and cheaper transactions than Bitcoin’s primary network.
Read more: What Is Bitcoin's Lightning Network?
This integration means OKCoin can lower deposit minimums for bitcoin on Lightning to 0.000001 BTC ($0.03), while the withdrawal maximum is $750. OKCoin representatives told CoinDesk that Lightning Network deposits will show up under users’ regular bitcoin balances, and that users only have to pay Lightning Network fees (usually pennies) when withdrawing.
OKCoin is one of the members of Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain, another scaling solution, wherein a network maintained by a federation of members like OKCoin processes transactions for a fraction of the cost of Bitcoin’s primary network.
OKCoin’s CEO told CoinDesk the exchange may “explore other networks” in the future but is focused on implementing Lightning live on the platform first.
Read more: Bitcoin Scaling Tech Could Have Saved Companies and Users $500M in Fees: Report
Once it’s integrated, the Lightning Network will be available on both OKCoin’s mobile and web applications.
Bitcoin Lightning Network exchanges
OKCoin is not the only exchange riding Lightning into the new year.
At the turn of 2020, Kraken Exchange announced it would launch support for the network sometime in the first half of 2021. Shortly after the new year, U.K.-based CoinCorner integrated the solution for users of its exchange after having it as a payment option on its merchant plug-in for some months.
Momentum is building for the Lightning Network’s utility as an instant, cheap on- and off-ramp to exchanges. Bitfinex, which services an international clientele but is closed to U.S. users, was one of the first exchanges to offer Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals. U.S.-exclusive River Financial also offers Lightning functionality for its users.
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
MegaETH mainnet to go live Feb. 9 in major test of ‘real-time’ Ethereum scaling
This follows its October 2025 $450 million token sale that was heavily oversubscribed.
What to know:
- MegaETH, the much-watched high-performance Ethereum layer-2 network, announced that its public mainnet will go live Feb. 9, marking a major milestone for a project that has gained a lot of attention in the scaling landscape.
- MegaETH positions itself as a “real-time” blockchain for Ethereum, designed to deliver ultra-low latency and massive transaction throughput.
Top Stories
