Crypto: Record $1m Lightning Transfer Tests Bitcoin Payments For Institutions

A $1 million Lightning transfer between SDM and Kraken was used to test whether Bitcoin’s main scaling layer could handle seven‑figure, institutional‑grade payments.

Institutional trading and lending desk Secure Digital Markets (SDM) said it sent a $1 million payment to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken over the Lightning Network on Jan. 28.

SDM claimed in a Thursday statement shared with Cointelegraph that it is the largest publicly reported Lightning transaction to date and a proof‑of‑concept for seven‑figure transfers between regulated counterparties.

The payment cleared in 0.43 seconds and was routed via Voltage’s managed Lightning infrastructure, which provides node management, pre‑provisioned liquidity, and uptime guarantees aimed at exchanges and trading desks.

The previously publicized “record” single payment milestone was about 1.24 Bitcoin (BTC), roughly $140,000 at the time, highlighting the rarity of six‑figure Lightning payments, let alone a clean, seven‑figure transfer in one shot.

Voltage CEO Graham Krizek called the transaction an “important moment for Lightning and for institutional Bitcoin payments,” saying that a $1 million Lightning transfer highlighted the “its ability to meet enterprise requirements.”

Related: Lightning Network could nab 5% of stablecoin flows by 2028: Voltage CEO

The transfer comes against a backdrop of mixed Lightning metrics. Capacity on public Lightning channels fell from over 5,400 BTC in late 2023 to about 4,200 BTC by mid 2025, before rebounding to a new all-time high capacity of over 5,600 BTC by December.

That’s still a small pool of capital relative to Bitcoin’s market value, and most documented usage has skewed toward smaller payments.

Bitfinex, for example, had long capped Lightning deposits at 0.04 BTC before recently lifting limits to 0.5 BTC per payment and 2 BTC per channel.

Source: CoinTelegraph