Lightning Network capacity has climbed to a fresh all-time high as major exchanges increased adoption and Lightning Labs rolled out new functionality.

Capacity sets new high

Lightning Network capacity reached 5,606 BTC on Monday, surpassing the prior record set in March 2023, according to Bitcoin Visuals.

Amboss separately reported a peak of 5,637 BTC on Tuesday, valuing the network’s capacity at about $490 million.

The move followed a sharp rise in November and December after a year of declines, as more bitcoin was added to payment channels.

Nodes and channels remain below peaks

Despite the capacity increase, node and channel counts remain well below prior highs.

The number of Lightning nodes stood at 14,940, down from a March 2022 peak of 20,700.

Channels were at 48,678, also below their 2022 peak.

Exchange deposits drive the jump

Amboss said the capacity increase reflects broader participation rather than a single large contributor.

It pointed to large exchanges including Binance and OKX depositing more BTC onto Lightning this month.

Taproot Assets upgrade

Lightning Labs announced an upgrade to Taproot Assets v0.7, adding reusable addresses, a fully auditable asset supply, and larger, more reliable transactions.

Taproot Assets is a multi-asset Lightning protocol designed to let assets such as stablecoins be minted on Bitcoin and sent over Lightning.

Lightning Labs said:

“With this release, we are laying the foundation for trillions of dollars to flow on Bitcoin and Lightning.”