The Lightning Network has grown tremendously this year and again last month. This is reported by the popular research company Glassnode on September 27, which has recently been reporting these statistics.
During a volatile week, #Bitcoin investors have had their conviction tested.
This week, we assess both bullish and bearish indicators for the current market structure, and deep dive into our new Lightning Network metrics⚡️
Read more in The Week Onchainhttps://t.co/HXnEIluSKF
— glassnode (@glassnode) September 27, 2021
Lightning Network, or LN, is a so-called layer-2 scaling solution for the Bitcoin (BTC) network. LN helps to get around the problem of Bitcoin’s slow transaction speed through transactions off chain to be carried out.
Glassnode reports in the report that the number of LN nodes, which have computers connected to the Lightning network, has now reached 15,600. It was still around 15,000 at the beginning of this month, an increase of 4% in one month. In January it was still around 8,000, a growth of 95% this year. Last September this was still around 6,000, which is a growth of even 160% in one year. According to data from 1ML and Bitcoin Visuals the number of LN nodes is already at 15,996.
Furthermore, Glassnode reports that the number of channels, or channels, has also reached a new record. These channels are the connections between the nodes and now comes to a record of 73,000. Glassnode adds that this works out to roughly an average of 4.6 channels per node.
LN’s network capacity is also higher than ever. The total LN currently processes 2,904 BTC worth about $123 million, an increase of no less than 170% in 2021, Glassnode reports. 514 BTC, or 22%, was added in September alone. Finally, the average capacity per channel is also higher than ever, at 0.04 BTC.
Glassnode reports that the “explosive growth” comes in part thanks to the recent addition of a bitcoin “tip jar” on Twitter as well as the implementation of the Bitcoin law in El Salvador.
#Bitcoin Lightning Network⚡️metrics continuous hitting all-time-highs this week.
Lightning Node count hits 15.6k
Total channel count is up to 73k
Channel capacity is up 22% in Sept to 2,904 $BTCLive⚡️Dashboardhttps://t.co/3eC5Tr4z7R pic.twitter.com/bVGzoqqnpR
— Yann & Jan (@Negentropic_) September 27, 2021