Crypto exchange Binance today said it had set up Lightning nodes on the Bitcoin network to eventually offer Lightning-based bitcoin deposit and withdrawal services to users, as per a Tuesday tweet.

“Binance is working to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network for deposits and withdrawals,” the exchange tweeted. “However, there's still more tech work to be done. We'll update once Lightning is fully integrated.”

The Lightning network is dubbed a “second layer” of the Bitcoin blockchain, which serves to speed up transaction times and decrease network congestion. It achieves this by setting up payment channels that conduct off-chain transactions between users with fees of a few cents.

In May, Binance said it would integrate the Lightning network to ease deposit and withdrawal activity for users. Binance had temporarily paused bitcoin withdrawals citing network congestion at the time – which led to concerns among users around the exchange’s reserve funds.

Exchanges Kraken and Bitfinex already offer Lightning network services to users, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong suggested in an April tweet that the exchange would offer Lightning network to users in the future.

The Lightning network holds just under $145 million worth of bitcoin meant for quick payments as of Tuesday morning, data shows.

Bitcoin btc Binance On-chain Data

Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.