A public Lightning Network dashboard displayed 3,545.89 Bitcoin (BTC) in public-channel capacity on Oct. 20, about 37% below the December 2025 high, a snapshot that does not show transaction volume.
The dashboard's 5:54 p.m. ET (21:54 UTC) reading also listed 13,579 nodes and 34,495 channels. During the Oct. 20 check, another public explorer listed about 2,504 BTC in capacity, with 5,937 nodes and 19,674 channels, so the first figure represents one service's display rather than a definitive networkwide count.
Public channel totals leave out channels that have not been announced. Node counts may also omit nodes without announced channels. Capacity reflects the bitcoin committed to channels rather than how frequently or how much money moves through them; the same assigned balance can support repeated transfers.
Payment estimates cover a different measure and period. For November 2025, one networkwide estimate put Lightning payments at $1.17 billion and 5.22 million transactions; for November 2024, it put them at $286.5 million and 2.42 million transactions. It also estimated an average payment of $223, compared with $118 a year earlier. The comparison documents growth between those two months but does not indicate how payment activity changed in 2026. The two series are not directly comparable: one measures BTC committed to channels, while the other estimates transfers.
The estimate drew on data from 11 providers accounting for 50.6% of network capacity. It removed overlapping observations before extrapolating across the rest of the network. Individual Lightning transfers are not recorded in a public ledger, so networkwide transaction counts and payment values must be estimated rather than tallied directly.
Eligible U.S. sellers using Square can accept payments from Lightning-enabled wallets and settle in BTC or dollars. Each payment is limited to $600, and the processing fee is 0% through 2026. EconoTimes previously noted Square's checkout and settlement terms in an earlier story on an Arizona appendix. Those product terms provide a way to pay over Lightning, but the dashboard reading does not reveal how often customers used it.
