The largest American cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has added support for the Lightning Network on its platform to enable faster and cheaper payments.

According to a blog post, the Lightning Network integration on Coinbase will reduce the cost of sending bitcoin (BTC) globally by 20x compared to the 2% charged on United States credit card transactions and the $30 paid for wire transfers.

Coinbase Integrates Lightning Network

Coinbase’s Lightning Network integration was spearheaded by Lightspark, a lightning infrastructure provider led by David Marcus, the co-founder of payments giant PayPal. The crypto exchange entered a partnership with Lightspark earlier this month when it announced plans to move forward with the Lightning integration.

The high cost and delay of traditional payment systems propelled Coinbase’s plans to enhance its blockchain payment offerings. The firm revealed that U.S. consumers spent roughly $75 billion on credit card transaction fees in 2022, and worse still, most of those were delayed for days.

Since the future of payments is crypto, Coinbase said it is committed to enabling faster, cheaper, and more secure payments through blockchain technology with the integration of the Lightning Network. Customers can now execute BTC transfers instantly, rather than the ten minutes to two hours it took for on-chain transactions to be processed in the past.

“Coinbase is excited to continue revolutionizing the traditional payments system with crypto. Faster and cheaper access to money is critical to bridging gaps in accessing financial tools, especially for underbanked and unbanked communities.

These blockchain-based innovations will unlock capital that is caught up in unnecessary fees and settlement delays, allowing consumers and businesses to do more with their money,” the firm stated.

Not Available in All Regions

Notably, Coinbase’s Lightning Network integration is currently not available in all regions. Information on the exchange’s help center shows that users in New York and Canada cannot access the service at this time. Also, the cost difference between Bitcoin and the Lightning Network is not applicable to all Coinbase transfers.

Meanwhile, Coinbase is not the only crypto exchange that has added support for the Lightning Network. The world’s largest trading platform, Binance, did the same in July 2023, joining Kraken, Bitfinex, and OKX.