Pocket launches Lightning top-up service
We are very proud to officially launch our Lightning top-up service today, the first European bitcoin-only exchange to do so. Our new top-up service allows you to receive bitcoin directly into your Breez or Phoenix wallet.
Lightning at Pocket
At Pocket, we started working on implementing Lightning a while ago because we believe in the future of Lightning as a scalable bitcoin payment solution. This is because Lightning is a low-cost replacement for today's popular payment methods, that is available to everyone globally and does not exploit merchants and consumers.
It is our goal at Pocket to make bitcoin accessible to all, and with this product we have taken an important step in that direction. The Lightning top-up service is now the first Lightning product that Pocket is officially releasing. More products and implementations are already planned.
Successful beta phase
During a little more than 2 months, our clients tested the service in the beta phase. We have steadily improved the top-up service during this time and received excellent feedback from our community which has helped us to finalise the product for today's go-live. During the beta phase, we have already exchanged over 130'000 EUR in bitcoin and successfully paid out in more than 1300 transactions to our clients' self-custodial lightning wallets.
The beta phase was very successful and today we are very confident that we offer the easiest fiat-to-lightning gateway for everyone in Europe with this product.
How and what you can use the service for
The new Lightning top-up service can be easily accessed via our website. Similar to our standard onchain product, you can set up an order in a few steps by entering your email address and IBAN. Currently, withdrawals are possible to the self-custodial lightning wallets Phoenix and Breez. After you have set up an order, you can set up a simple bank transfer. It is important that you include the reference number you received once you've set up the order. Once we receive your payment, your fiat will be converted to bitcoin and you will receive an email to withdraw the satoshis to your Lightning wallet. One of the main advantages of the service is the short transaction times, which are usually only a few minutes for real-time transfers.
As the name of the new service suggests, it was designed primarily as a top-up solution. This means that it is ideal for refilling your Lightning wallet with satoshis should it ever run out. It's especially useful when you want to make quick and easy payments on the Lightning network, whether you're shopping online, at a bitcoin conference or using specialised services like Nostr.
0% fees on your first transaction
To celebrate the go-live, this week you can benefit from 0% fees on your first transaction of up to 1000 CHF / EUR via our new Lightning top-up service.
This promotion ends on Sunday 17 September 2023.