Xapo Bank, the leading Bitcoin custodian and licensed private bank, has partnered with Lightspark and integrated with Lightning Network to enable lightning-fast Bitcoin payments for its customers. Xapo Bank members can now instantly pay for small purchases up to $100 at any provider that accepts Lightning payments without incurring high transaction fees and waiting times. long blockchain validation. As the world’s most trusted crypto advocate, Xapo Bank also offers an annual interest rate of 4.1% on the US Dollar and will soon offer up to 1% on Bitcoin, spread across the year and is paid daily.

Lightning Network allows payments to scale to millions of transactions per second on the network. This integration will alleviate the time-consuming and expensive experiences that often make it difficult for users to pay for small bitcoin transactions. Xapo Bank will be the first fully licensed private bank to offer near-instant Bitcoin payments, and its goal is to become the largest Lightning Node, expanding network usage to many users new.

“The average transaction confirmation time of one hour combined with potentially large fees during periods of high usage make the Bitcoin network unsuitable for small daily payments such as groceries. By integrating with the hyper-efficient Lightning Network, we are the first bank in the world to streamline this process and allow our members to pay for small purchases with Bitcoin without having to convert to USD first. Against a backdrop of hyperinflation, economic uncertainty and political turmoil, we are entering a world where digital money is ubiquitous, and we need integrations like this that open up access to Bitcoin payments. We are bringing together the benefits of fast, cost-efficient, and global Bitcoin payments with the security, privacy, and flexibility unmatched in the traditional banking industry.”

Seamus Rocca, CEO of Xapo Bank.

Founded in 2013, Xapo is the first Bitcoin holder and one of the most trusted custodians in the industry, providing users with a secure platform to store and transact in their Bitcoins. Surname. It was the world’s first cryptocurrency company to obtain a banking license, evolved into Xapo Bank and has since expanded its services to include accounts with interest rates in both USD and BTC, while continuing to expand asset management services, in addition to other banking services. Unlike other financial services companies, at Xapo Bank members fully own and control their Bitcoins, meaning they can receive, hold and send Bitcoins directly.

“We’re thrilled to enable the first bank on the Lightning Network to offer instant, cheap Bitcoin payments to its customers. Xapo has been one of our early closed beta partners, and we’re delighted they chose Lightspark’s enterprise-grade solution to reliably send and receive payments on the Lightning Network without all the complexity and operational overhead that typically comes with running a node on it. We look forward to talking more about our solution in the months to come.”

David Marcus, CEO and Co-Founder of Lightspark.

To pay via Lightning Network, Xapo Bank members will need to hold Bitcoins in the Xapo Bank app. They can then simply scan and pay the invoice at any merchant that accepts Lightning Network payments. The network charges a very small fee per transaction, usually a few Satoshi. Xapo Bank has set a flat settlement fee for SAT 15 (less than 0.01 USD as of Feb 24) to protect members from performing high-fee transactions.