Lightning Network, BTC’s Sidechain, Will Now Trade Dollar Stablecoin

Lightning Labs announced that it has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round to further expand the Lightning Network, the leading layer 2 solution for BTC.

“In a world with many technology solutions in pursuit of a problem, we believe in solving real problems for real people, which is what sets the entire Lightning Network protocol community apart,” said Lightning Labs Co-Founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark.

Stablecoins on Lightning Network

The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the round to fund its efforts to build solutions to make BTC even stronger for micro and nano payments.

As Stark pointed out, this includes improving a solution called Taro. It is a protocol announced by the company that can allow the use of stablecoins within the Lightning Network through the Taproot protocol.

“Taro makes it possible to send assets such as stablecoins using the BTC network at cheaper rates than Visa,” he stated.

According to Stark, Taro will bring interoperability between assets such as USD and BTC stablecoins to many places where Lightning is already in use today, such as emerging markets, including El Salvador – which recently made BTC legal tender – as well as video games, major exchanges, tips on Twitter, among others.

Lightning Labs’ Series B funding was led by Valor Equity Partners, the early backers of Tesla and SpaceX, and accompanied by global asset manager Baillie Gifford.

In addition, venture capital firms Stillmark, Goldcrest Capital, Kingsway, Moore Strategic Ventures, Brevan Howard, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, NYDIG and Silvergate CEO Alan Lane also participated.

“We feel lucky to work with mission-driven investors who believe in the power of BTC and that the Lightning Network can bring financial access to everyone,” said Stark.

Lightning Labs raised $10 million in a Series A round two years ago. At the same time, it launched its Lightning Loop service in beta.