Revolut has partnered with Lightspark to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network into its payments infrastructure, enabling faster and cheaper BTC transactions for users in the UK and parts of the European Economic Area (EEA), the companies announced Wednesday.
As the most popular layer 2 scaling solution for Bitcoin, the Lightning Network solves several challenges that prevent the original protocol from being used for micropayments and other transaction types. It also enables payments to be processed faster and more privately than they would natively on the primary coin’s blockchain.
The integration gives Revolut access to Lightspark’s core services, including MoneyGrid, a routing system that connects 300 million users across 140+ countries for near-instant cross-border payments. It’s a major upgrade from traditional bank rails, which Lightspark CEO David Marcus called “akin to dial-up when the rest of the world uses 5G.”
Launched in 2022 by Marcus following his departure from Meta’s failed Diem project, Lightspark is backed by top venture firms including a16z and Paradigm. Its goal is to expand Bitcoin’s use cases by scaling the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s Layer 2 for high-speed, low-cost payments.
Revolut joins a growing number of fintechs turning to Lightning, following Coinbase’s adoption in April 2024, which now handles 15% of its BTC transaction volume through the network.
The move also comes amid a strong financial run for Revolut, which recently reported a record $1.4 billion pre-tax profit, up 149% year-on-year. Its crypto segment, including the new Revolut X exchange app, has been a key growth driver.
Although Revolut exited the U.S. market in October 2023, it continues to expand in crypto-friendly jurisdictions, including plans to launch its own stablecoin outside the United States.
The Lightning Network has gained popularity as a scaling solution for Bitcoin, allowing for instant processing of millions of transactions with reduced fees. Several other major crypto exchanges, such as Kraken, Bitfinex, BitStamp, and OKEx, have already integrated the Lightning Network protocol into their platforms.
The Lightning Network was first proposed by Thaddeus Dryja and Joseph Poon to create a layer on top of the original blockchain, in order to increase transaction speed while significantly reducing costs.
In its early days, Lightning developers intentionally added the limitations to protect users from pouring too much money into the nascent network. But the upgraded integration now allows for larger transactions and higher volumes, which helps decrease fees that build up with having to open many small channels.