Lightning Network-based bitcoin payment system Strike has entered the UK market

What’s new? Bitcoin payments system Strike has launched its services in the UK, allowing eligible local individuals and businesses to make global payments using the Lightning Network protocol. The UK launch follows the April launch of services in Europe. Strike is now available in 100 countries around the world, including the US, Latin America, and Africa.

Material by The Block

What else is known? The custodial app for iOS and Android allows UK users to directly make instant bitcoin purchases using pounds sterling bank accounts, as well as set up automatic conversions and scheduled recurring purchases.

Customers can also transfer funds to external non-custodial wallets, make instant unlimited payments on the bitcoin blockchain or Layer 2 (L2) Lightning Network, and sell bitcoins and withdraw funds to bank accounts.

Lightning Labs has tested Taproot Assets-based stablecoin transactions on the bitcoin network

The protocol uses the Lightning L2 network for conducting transactions

Read more

In addition, free withdrawal of funds from the network is available to customers, which can be used during periods of congestion and fee growth, however, the time for such operations will be about a day.

Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers said that the UK has significant potential for bitcoin adoption. The company intends to expand business in the local market by providing services in compliance with local regulations.

All Strike customers have a Lightning address in the format [email protected] to speed up the process of receiving payments. Using these addresses, users can receive and send funds in both bitcoins and pounds sterling. It is also possible to send and pay bills in the app with support for both currencies.

The global P2P transfer feature will allow sending pounds sterling to any Strike-supported country. Funds can be credited to the recipient’s account in bitcoins, pounds sterling in the UK, euros in Europe, dollars in the US, or USDT stablecoins in supported regions.

WisdomTree has received permission to launch a spot BTC ETF on the LSE exchange

Trading will open on May 28 for professional investors

Read more

The app also supports sending pounds sterling and receiving payments in local currency in a number of countries including Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Philippines, Mexico, and Vietnam.