ChainCatcher news, on February 18th afternoon, the Lightning Connect: Transforming Global Payment, co-hosted by CKB Eco Fund, Breez, and UTXO Stack, with strategic support from OKX, Blockstream, and ChainCatcher, will be held in Hong Kong. As the most anticipated Bitcoin-themed event during Consensus HK, this summit will bring together Bitcoin developers, payment innovators, and infrastructure builders to discuss how Bitcoin and the Lightning Network are driving global payment innovation.Blockstream CEO Adam Back and OKX President Hong Fang will engage in a deep dialogue during the Fireside Chat on "The Evolution of Global Payment Infrastructure: Lightning and Beyond," exploring the evolution of Bitcoin payments, the future of the Lightning Network, and innovative trends in global payment infrastructure.The summit will also feature Lightning Network application demos, roundtable discussions with ecosystem builders and investors, covering cutting-edge fields such as AI agents and crypto e-commerce payments, promoting development collaboration and business implementation.

ChainCatcher news, stablecoin issuer Tether announced the integration of USDT into the Bitcoin ecosystem, including the Bitcoin mainnet and the Lightning Network. This integration is based on the Taproot Assets protocol developed by Lightning Labs, which will enable fast, low-cost transactions while combining the security and scalability of Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher news, as reported by Chainwire, UTXO Stack has officially released its white paper titled "Decentralized Liquidity Staking Layer for Hybrid Lightning Network," along with its 2025 roadmap and a newly designed website.The white paper elaborates on the role of UTXO Stack as a liquidity staking layer for the Lightning Network, integrating core components such as Hybrid Lightning Network (Hybrid LN), Decentralized Liquidity Staking (DLSP), exchange nodes, wallets, and SDKs to address key challenges in the Lightning Network, including liquidity shortages, high entry barriers, and limited stablecoin support. By combining the Lightning Network with the fiber network of Nervos CKB, UTXO Stack aims to create a scalable and efficient payment network to facilitate the widespread adoption of Bitcoin payments.According to the 2025 roadmap, UTXO Stack will launch its first large-scale BTC liquidity incentive program on the Lightning Network in January 2025 and plans to complete the first Token Generation Event (TGE) of the Lightning Network ecosystem in the first quarter of 2025, further advancing liquidity development and ecosystem growth.

ChainCatcher news, the Lightning Network liquidity staking protocol UTXO Stack has completed its Series A financing with a valuation of $50 million, jointly invested by UTXO Management, CMS, and PAKA.After this round of financing, UTXO Stack will launch its first-ever large-scale airdrop incentive program targeting BTC liquidity within the Lightning Network in early January 2025. Subsequently, it will coordinate with the launch of the CKB Lightning Network Fiber Network mainnet to provide liquidity airdrop incentives for CKB and RGB++ related assets. The Token Generation Event (TGE) is expected to be completed in Q1 2025, marking the first TGE in the Lightning Network ecosystem.It is reported that UTXO Stack had previously completed a seed round of financing, co-led by ABCDE Capital and SNZ Capital, with participation from CKB Eco Fund, OKX Ventures, UTXO Management, Waterdrip Capital, Matrixport, y2z Ventures, and DRK Lab.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the Bitcoin Lightning Network payment platform ZBD (formerly Zebedee) announced that it has received approval from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and will be granted a license when the MiCA regulation officially comes into effect on December 30.This license will allow ZBD to provide cryptocurrency custody and trading services throughout the European Union. ZBD submitted its application in April this year and is one of the first companies to be approved.Currently, countries like the Netherlands are prepared for the implementation of MiCA, while other EU member states are still advancing related legislative work. The list of approved companies will be published on the AFM's official website after MiCA comes into effect.

ChainCatcher message, Mempool recently clarified some FUD on platform X: "The Mempool open-source project does not support 'ord' daemon integration, and mempool.space only displays data contained in the Bitcoin mempool, blockchain, and Lightning Network.This means that if users search for a transaction containing Ordinals, inscriptions, or runes, this data will be visible in mempool.space, just as it exists on the Bitcoin blockchain.We only support Bitcoin and do not support shitcoins, but if it is in the mempool or blockchain, it will be visible in mempool.space. Because displaying the blockchain (data) is essentially the role of a Bitcoin explorer."

ChainCatcher message, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken removed the Lightning Network feature for German customers citing "technical changes." Cryptocurrency news publication Protos reported that a support agent from Kraken attributed the removal to "regulatory issues."Kraken "misquoted" the regulatory changes that led to the suspension of the service. Kraken stated, "The changes to the service for German customers wanting to use Lightning are the result of technical changes."

ChainCatcher news, UTXO Stack announces its official transformation into a Lightning Network staking layer. It aims to provide better liquidity and a better yield model for the Lightning Network through a decentralized staking protocol.At the same time, UTXO Stack plans to launch a token incentive mechanism to encourage staking of CKB and BTC to enhance the liquidity of state channels. This transformation will push the Lightning Network towards the public by providing liquidity incentives, building a more scalable Bitcoin ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, Bitcoin Lightning Network payment company Lightspark now allows U.S. businesses to send instant payments directly to bank accounts using its network.

ChainCatcher message, CKB releases the next-generation public lightning network Fiber Network light paper. Fiber Network is a next-generation public lightning network built on Nervos CKB and off-chain channels, providing fast, low-cost, and decentralized multi-currency payments and peer-to-peer transactions for RGB++ assets.Similar to the Bitcoin Lightning Network, Fiber Network operates as a layer-two payment channel expansion solution, conducting transactions off-chain to enhance transaction speed and reduce costs while maintaining the security and decentralization of the blockchain. Fiber Network supports multiple asset types; in addition to the CKB native token, any RGB++ asset can be paid on Fiber Network. The overall architecture of Fiber Network includes core modules such as off-chain payment channels, on-chain contracts, multi-hop routing, and monitoring services. Currently, Fiber Network has completed prototype development, achieving basic functionalities for creating, updating, and closing channels between two nodes, while also validating cross-chain functionality with the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin Magazine, Miami-based Bitcoin Lightning Network payment startup TMRW has announced the completion of a $1.3 million Pre-Seed funding round, led by Maple VC, with participation from angel investors including Brad Mills.TMRW primarily leverages the speed and low cost of the Lightning Network and is building an open payment standard called Universal Money Addresses based on the Lightning Network. It aims to facilitate cross-border peer-to-peer payments through Lightspark and ZeroHash. The new funding is intended to expand into the U.S. market, and TMRW has reportedly opened its iOS beta version to U.S. users.

ChainCatcher message, the number of Bitcoin Lightning Network nodes has reached 13,540, a decrease of -0.70% compared to data from 30 days ago, and the Lightning Network capacity has reached 5,268.26 BTC.