Demex Daily #125: Coinbase Adds Bitcoin Lightning Payments with Lightspark

What’s Interesting Today:

Coinbase is partnering with Lightspark to integrate Bitcoin Lightning payments, aiming to reduce transaction fees by moving activity to Bitcoin's layer-2. Led by David Marcus, former PayPal president, Lightspark will help Coinbase enable faster and cheaper transactions for its 108 million users. The move, announced by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, aims to address the increased fees on Bitcoin's base layer. Lightspark, founded in 2022, focuses on simplifying the use of Lightning nodes and has developed Lightspark Predict, an AI tool to improve transaction success rates. Lightning payments have a 99.7% success rate, with failures mostly due to liquidity issues. Binance has already integrated Lightning, and the technology is popular in regions like Lugano, El Zonte, and Utiva, although some view Bitcoin more as a store of value than a medium of exchange.

Velodrome, an Optimism-based AMM DEX, has expanded to the Bitcoin L2 network BOB, aiming to become the primary MetaDEX within the Superchain network. This integration will facilitate BTC DeFi innovation and broaden Bitcoin use cases via EVM-compatible contract deployments, enhancing liquidity and volume within the ecosystem.