Lightning Network capacity and the splicing shift

September capacity movements

The Lightning Network holds 3,736 BTC in active capacity as of September 2026. During that month, the network recorded a net capacity expansion of 12.14 BTC. In September 2026, the Lightning Network recorded a net capacity expansion of 12.14 BTC through 5,306 opened channels and 6,971 closed channels, even though the total active capacity reached 3,736 BTC during that specific month. The network maintains 33,549 active routing channels and 12,542 discovered nodes. The network sizing shows a median of 2,000,000 sats and a mean of 11,135,734 sats. A total of 255 new routing nodes joined the network this month. The prior month recorded a net of -525.20 BTC, while the trailing 6-month cumulative flow shows a net loss of 1,115.6 BTC. In June, the network housed about 1,500 BTC.

The 185 powerhouse nodes anchor 84.2% of all locked BTC. Channel closures in September consisted of 65% mutual closes and 35% force closes. Median channel lifespan reached 41 days before on-chain closure. Taproot deployments represent 1.80% of the topology, comprising 604 channels.

Phoenix 2.0 and splicing tech

Phoenix 2.0 uses splicing to resize channels. This technology allows a user to have only one channel and one UTXO. This method eliminates scattered liquidity and splitting issues. Users pay a 0.4% fee on outgoing Lightning payments. This replaces the previous 1% fee on incoming payments.

The release supports 100+ additional currencies, including free market rates for Argentina, Cuba, and Lebanon. Users can choose fee-bumping for swap-outs to pay Bitcoin addresses directly from the channel. Core Lightning v26.04 also supports splicing via the dev-splice command. This command allows a user to move funds from five channels into two others in one command. The update includes 20% smaller binaries and faster startup times via gossip store compaction offloading. It also improves routing through parallel path finding in the askreneengine and smarter retry logic. Users can attach a payer-note to xpay payments and filter listpeerchannels by channel_id. The bookkeeper plugin allows users to map activity into journal entries and General Ledger accounts.

The non-custodial UX problem

Non-custodial Lightning use remains difficult for the average person. Users struggle with inbound liquidity, channel closures, and the need for watchtowers. Most people prefer custodial services like Strike or Cash App because they handle the technical burdens. The version of Lightning that achieved any adoption was the custodial version, which by construction discards the property that made Lightning ideologically interesting in the first place. Can non-custodial wallets ever overcome the convenience of custodial services? You should realize that most Bitcoin stays on exchanges rather than in self-custody.

The network volume reached $1.1 billion in monthly volume across 5 million transactions in late 2025 and early 2026. This figure is small compared to stablecoins, which settled $1.7 trillion in volume in 2024. Most Lightning volume comes from a small number of institutional operators and cryptocurrency exchanges. Kraken and Bitfinex use Lightning for settlement. The network also supports Nostr zaps. In El Salvador, Bitcoin usage fell from 25.7 percent in 2021 to 8.1 percent in 2024. The Chivo wallet, which the Bukele government rolled out to push citizens onto Lightning rails, is being privatized after the government agreed to wind down the wallet in December 2024 as a condition of a $1.4 billion IMF Extended Facility. Sixty-one percent of those who used the Chivo bonus stopped using the app afterwards.