Coinbase – the largest and most popular crypto exchange in the U.S. – has confirmed it’s going to be integrating the bitcoin Lightning Network onto its platform, thus ensuring bitcoin transactions scale and move along at quicker paces.

Coinbase and Lightning: The Perfect Match?

The Lightning Network has been all the rage in the bitcoin community for some time. The idea is that it helps move various (smaller) bitcoin transactions off-chain, thus ensuring the network has less baggage to deal with. Removing some of these lesser transactions from the BTC mainframe allows bitcoin to move faster when being transferred between wallets. It also ensures transactions are less costly, which has been a problem with bitcoin in the past.

The news involving the Lightning Network was announced on Twitter by Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase. He stated:

Lightning is great and something we’ll integrate.

The news comes at an interesting time given Coinbase is dealing with quite a bit right now. Not long ago, the trading platform announced it received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has become a major bully on the crypto playground. The agency has made a living out of attacking crypto firms such as Kraken, which was recently forced to part with a $30 million penalty fee and end all its staking services.

A Wells notice doesn’t charge a company with any crime. However, it’s a warning to the company receiving the notice that it’s going to likely be charged in the future. This gives the firm time to prepare and get a good legal team to fight on its behalf.

It’s hard to know if Coinbase has truly done something wrong or if this is just another attempt on the SEC’s part to ensure crypto innovation dies in the U.S., which it appears to have been pursuing for some time. There are several crypto companies out there that have fallen victim to the agency’s drama over the past two years, and very few of them (if any at all) have admitted guilt. It seems the agency is simply looking to garner as much penalty money as it can from digital currency enterprises.

The news surrounding the Lightning Network has got several people excited, with Gabor Gurbacs – a crypto entrepreneur and advisor to Van Eck – saying:

Looking forward to seeing Lightning support on Coinbase. Bitfinex has done a great job with Lightning earlier.

Ethereum’s Also Looking Good

In the meantime, analysts at K33 Research are commenting on Ethereum, saying:

1.1 million Ethereum related to partial reward withdrawals could face the market, while Celsius [network] is likely to sell its 158,000 staked balance as part of its bankruptcy process. These two numbers represent nearly 1.3 million Ethereum or approximately $2.4 billion worth of potential sell-side pressure to face the market.

The post Coinbase to Integrate the BTC Lightning Network appeared first on Live Bitcoin News.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ May 18, 2023 3:00 pm