If you have been following along, you know that the team at BitcoinVN has been working for quite some time on upgrades to the Lightning infrastructure powering our instant swap exchange service.
While we have offered basic Lightning integration for several years already, the reliability and scalability of the previous setup remained rather limited. This has now changed with the arrival of the first quarter of 2026.
From here on out, two major improvements are available to our user base:
- the previous limit of 1k$ per swap has been lifted
- support for Lightning Address format
Both of these upgrades have been requested by our user base for quite some time, so we are glad to be kicking off the Year of the Horse (symbolizing in East Asia a year of action, movement and decisive action!) by finally delivering on these long-anticipated improvements.
While we do expect that, especially for larger swaps, some routing issues may still remain, the trend we have been observing so far has been more encouraging than anticipated.
If you do encounter routing issues, please do not hesitate to reach out to us on the matter. We remain keen to explore your specific case and – where within our capacity – eliminate such issues in order to continue building out an ever more reliable and capable Lightning routing infrastructure.
BitcoinVN26 – public routing node
Aside from these consumer-facing upgrades to BitcoinVN, we have this quarter also launched our new clearnet routing node, BitcoinVN26, accompanying our established TOR routing node BitcoinVN22.
While the buildout is still ongoing, we have already equipped the new setup with a sizeable channel between BitcoinVN22 and BitcoinVN26, so that both existing and new peers have rather direct access to our growing network of peers and channels.
The message and intention is clear: if you connect to a BitcoinVN routing node, we want you to enjoy strong and reliable access to the wider Lightning Network.
Alongside this, we have also given our Lightning information page a much-needed overhaul. The website now features significantly clearer information on the BitcoinVN routing node infrastructure, as well as on the purpose and benefits of the Lightning Network more broadly.
In parallel with the launch of BitcoinVN26, we have also introduced a new LP (Liquidity Provision) program. For the first time in BitcoinVN history, this includes a native Bitcoin yield product for qualified participants.
At present, access remains restricted to BV Prime clients. Parties interested in exploring whether they may qualify are welcome to reach out via our support channels.
Lightning address support
One of the more visible upgrades rolled out this quarter is support for the Lightning Address format.
For users who have not interacted much with the Lightning Network yet, a Lightning Address can best be understood as a more human-friendly way to receive Bitcoin via Lightning. Instead of dealing with long invoices for every single payment, users can receive funds via an address-like format that looks much more familiar and intuitive in day-to-day use.
In practical terms, this makes the user experience feel a lot less clunky. Rather than copying around long payment strings each time, a Lightning Address offers a more convenient and elegant way to receive payments – particularly for users who transact more regularly.
Lightning Address first began gaining traction in 2021–2022 as a more user-friendly way to receive Bitcoin over Lightning.
One tradeoff worth noting is that many of the easiest Lightning Address solutions available to end users today are custodial or service-provider managed – which is generally acceptable for smaller balances and everyday transactional use, but less ideal for users seeking full self-custody. More advanced self-custodial implementations do exist, though they typically require a permanently online node or backend infrastructure.
BitcoinVN has in the past supported initiatives aimed at helping more users run their own DIY self-hosted nodes, and the available toolsets have become more streamlined over time. However, demand for such DIY setup workshops and related consulting offers has remained limited, and those who do wish to pursue this route generally tend to find their own way toward it.
It should be noted that running a Lightning node is not something one should primarily pursue as a way “to make money” (there are plenty of other, more effective ways to stack Sats!) but rather something one does to retain sovereign control over one’s access to the Lightning Network and to preserve a stronger degree of privacy.
We understand that these concerns are only of interest to a minority of the user base — and that is probably fine. It is not, in any case, something one has significant control over: people will make their own choices.
We are appreciative and supportive of everyone who chooses to run their own node and connect directly with the network – but we also understand that the group of users for whom this is compelling remains rather limited, given the effort involved in operating one’s own node.
By now, Lightning Address support has become fairly common across a growing number of wallets and services. Among the more widely used options are wallets and services such as Blink, Neutron, Alby, WalletofSatoshi and others, with support continuing to spread across the wider ecosystem.
With the addition of Lightning Address support to BitcoinVN’s instant swap infrastructure, users who prefer this format can now make use of it directly within our service flow as well.
Further Lightning Infrastructure Investments
Besides our own infrastructure buildout, team BitcoinVN also remains committed to investing into the continued expansion of Lightning infrastructure alongside strongly qualified and driven partners who we believe can build out tools that tap into the still underexplored potential enabled by the Lightning Network.
You might already have seen some of our recent announcements on the matter – and can expect further announcements in this direction on this page soon.
While we of course allocate capital toward ventures we view as underappreciated and “asymmetric bets”, we continue to place particular emphasis on partners with a long track record of proven ability, strong character, the right moral compass, and demonstrated perseverance in times of adversity.
BitcoinVN strives to remain a key player in Asia’s Lightning ecosystem – a journey that began in earnest with our early seed investment into Neutron, today one of the region’s most significant Lightning players, and with the group’s trading platform VBTC becoming the first Asian CEX to adopt Lightning.
We are looking forward to sharing more with you soon.
BitcoinVN – Open API access for integration partners
Last but not least, if you are building a swap application or similar service and want to tap into established infrastructure for your backend, BitcoinVN offers straightforward and open API access to build on top of what our team has developed.
We would be glad to see you join our growing group of integration partners alongside a range of established ecosystem participants who have entrusted us with powering parts of their backend infrastructure.
Check out the BitcoinVN API documentation!
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