Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, has announced on Twitter that the exchange will integrate the Lightning Network into its platform, in order to “enable faster/cheaper Bitcoin transactions”. 

Armstrong claimed that “Bitcoin is the most important asset in crypto” but disclaimed that the integration in question would “take some time” and urged his audience to be patient regarding the technical completion of the upgrade.

Coinbase is not the first major centralized exchange to publicly announce use of the scalability-oriented Lightning Network.

In July 2023, Binance enabled Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals, via its exchange, in the wake of bitcoin-specific downtime caused by the surging popularity of Bitcoin ordinals at the time.

With two of the world’s highest profile exchanges adopting the Lightning Network and its technology, it is yet to be seen whether yet more centralized cryptocurrency platforms will follow suit.