The Bitfinex Lightning Network node is growing steadily. As reported on Twitter, the LN node of the exchange has a capacity of more than 28 BTC, or more than $270,000.
Bitfinex #LightningNetwork work node capacity is increasing! 28+BTC and counting.
Currently 5th in the rankings! ⚡️Checkout https://t.co/OBRX3SSo2o and connect to us!https://t.co/JhxY6J8kGe pic.twitter.com/MEHvfnsK4i
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) February 17, 2020
To date, the capacity of the entire LN network is just over 895 BTC, making the Bitfinex node hold more than 3% of the entire network capacity.
To be precise, it is the fifth largest node in terms of capacity, not far from its predecessors.
At the top of this ranking there is the ACINQ node with just over double the capacity (61 BTC), equal to 6.8% of the entire network, followed by OpenNode.com with 40 BTC.
In third position there is 03021c5f5f57322740e4 with 38 BTC and in fourth, just before Bitfinex, LNBIG.com with 30 BTC.
By now there are more than 11,000 Lightning Network nodes around the world, which is more than the Ethereum network nodes and also more than the public nodes of the Bitcoin network, which are just over 10,500.
The channels in use are about 36,000, compared to over 600,000 bitcoin addresses active in the last 24 hours, which shows on the one hand that it is much easier to manage an LN node than a public Bitcoin node and on the other that LN is still very little used in percentage compared to traditional wallets on-chain.
Actually, the capacity of the LN network peaked in May last year, when it exceeded 1,000 BTC and then dropped to 800 BTC at the beginning of October. Since then it has started a slow climb that is bringing it back up to 900 BTC.
In particular, as far as Bitfinex is concerned, the LN node was only announced at the beginning of December 2019, so it is worth mentioning the fact that in just over two months it has already entered the top 5 of the world’s largest LN nodes in terms of capacity.
After all, exchanges are still today the platforms that handle the highest volume of average daily bitcoin transactions, so it’s no wonder that Bitfinex users seem to particularly appreciate this technology.
In fact, being able to count on almost instantaneous transactions as well as very low cost can be useful to those who want to interact with an exchange considering that the speed with which transactions can be made is often relevant in trading.
