Bridged Bitcoin on Avalanche Exceeds Value Locked on the Lightning Network

Avalanche has surpassed Lightning Network’s total value in terms of bridged bitcoins, according to members of the crypto community. The Lightning Network holds 5,248 bitcoins, while the Avalanche blockchain holds 5,493 bitcoins.

Bitcoin bridged to Avalanche surpasses Lightning Network capacity

Avalanche (AVAX) advocates have been discussing the rising number of bitcoin (BTC) bridged over to the Avalanche (AVAX) network this past week. The supply of BTCb exceeded the number of bitcoins locked on the Lightning Network (LN) seven days ago. Celebrations were held because a much shorter time was required than the LN’s total value locked (TVL). Using today’s BTC prices, the LN has around 5,248 bitcoin TVL, which is worth about $120 million.

Avalanche (AVAX) supporter “Ojrdev” tweeted about the number of bitcoins transferred to the AVAX chain a week ago on Jan. 16. “Avalanche has transferred more [bitcoin] (BTCb) than is currently locked in [the] Lightning Network,” tweeted Ojrdev.”Avalanche’s consensus mechanism is also faster than Lightning.” Many other AVAX supporters agreed and rejoiced at the achievement. While the LN currently has 5,248 BTC, according to snowtrace.io, the number of BTCb is around 5,493 BTCb, which is worth $125.5 million at current BTC exchange rates.

During the same time period, the Wrapped Bitcoin project, which uses the Ethereum blockchain network, had the most tokenized bitcoin on any blockchain. The WBTC dashboard indicates that 179,697 WBTC are currently in use. The Binance Smart Chain also hosts a total of 52,888.86 BTCB (BSC). The BSC’s bitcoin cache is larger than that of AVAX. The BTCb amount, however, is greater than the 3,564 BTC locked on Blockstream’s Liquid Network, as well as the 3,496 RBTC on the RSK network.

Since 2017, the number of tokenized bitcoins hosted on alternative blockchains, networks, and sidechains has been growing, but the pace has accelerated since the launch of WBTC in 2019. The primary goal was to reduce transaction costs and accelerate finality. However, in 2020, Ethereum blockchain fees skyrocketed. The average ETH fee in mid-May 2021 was nearly $40 per transaction.

As a result, tokenized bitcoins have moved to blockchains other than the LN and Ethereum. The rise of BTCb on AVAX suggests that many cryptocurrency supporters see value in using a pegged version of BTC on a different chain. Meanwhile, the vast majority of WBTC circulating on the Ethereum blockchain has been decreasing over the last year.

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