Bitcoin Lightning Dashboard Shows Capacity 37% Below December 2025 High

A check of a public Lightning Network dashboard on Oct. 20, 2026, showed Bitcoin (BTC) channel capacity about 37% below its December 2025 high, underscoring the limits of visible capacity as a gauge of payments.

The dashboard displayed 3,545.89 BTC in public channels, 13,579 nodes and 34,495 channels when checked at 5:54 p.m. ET (21:54 UTC). The December 2025 capacity high was 5,637 BTC, making the observed reading about 37% lower.

That October figure is one dashboard reading, rather than a definitive count of the entire network. Another public explorer displayed about 2,504 BTC, 5,937 nodes and 19,674 channels during the same Oct. 20 check.

Public capacity measures BTC committed to visible payment channels; it does not measure how many payments those channels carry. A channel can process repeated transfers without a matching change in capacity. Unannounced channels are excluded from public channel counts, and nodes without announced channels may be missing from public node counts.

A network-wide payment estimate captures a different measure and an earlier period. Lightning processed an estimated $1.17 billion across 5.22 million transactions in November 2025, compared with $286.5 million and 2.42 million transactions in November 2024.

The estimated average payment increased to $223 from $118. The calculation used data from 11 providers representing 50.6% of network capacity. It adjusted for transactions observed by multiple providers before extending the results to the wider network.

Lightning payments are not individually recorded in a public ledger, so network-wide payment totals require estimates. The November comparison shows growth between the two measured months. It does not establish whether payment activity rose or fell during 2026. Earlier coverage examined the more than $1 billion monthly payment estimate and Lightning’s usability.

Eligible U.S. Square sellers can accept Lightning payments at checkout and settle them in BTC or dollars. The product has a $600 limit per payment and 0% processing fees through 2026. Those terms describe a way to use Lightning, but neither they nor the October capacity reading measure how often customers paid over the network that month.