Secure Digital Markets (SDM) sent a $1 million payment to Kraken via Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, demonstrating the speed and low cost the company has achieved at an institutional scale. The transaction, routed and backed by Voltage, was completed in approximately 0.43 seconds with near-zero fees in an unprecedented move.
Secure Digital Markets (SDM) and Kraken partnered to conduct a pilot test on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, aiming to demonstrate its ability to handle high-value transactions in under one second without any apparent issues or obstacles. The transfer utilized Voltage’s infrastructure, which provided liquidity, node management, and collateral throughout the operation.
This transaction, in addition to demonstrating the network’s capacity, also proved that Lightning can manage large flows, paving the way for institutional adoption for treasury and settlement operations. Voltage and SDM framed the transfer as a proof of concept for high-value, low-latency settlements between regulated counterparties.
Mostafa Al-Mashita, co-founder and head of sales and trading at SDM, said the move represented “a definitive shift in the architecture of global settlement,” framing the event as part of a strategic push by institutions to adopt Lightning for operational uses beyond micropayments.
Structural risks of the Lightning Network
Data from the end of 2025 showed significant institutional inflow into the Lightning network, bringing the capacity of public channels to a record 5,637 BTC, following a contraction earlier in the year. The growth was concentrated primarily in November and December and was driven more by capital deployments from asset managers, banks, and trading desks than by widespread retail adoption.
Meanwhile, the number of active Lightning nodes continued to decline. The network had approximately 14,940 active nodes, well below the peak of over 20,700 observed in early 2022. This combination of greater capacity concentrated in fewer nodes introduces structural risks, as it can create bottlenecks in routing and liquidity provision, potentially impacting fees and latency during peak institutional demand.
On January 28, a $1 million SDM transfer to Kraken was settled in approximately 0.43 seconds, using infrastructure provided by Voltage, which supplied managed nodes, liquidity, and availability guarantees. The result demonstrated that Lightning can handle high-volume settlements with near-instantaneous times.
For treasury teams and exchanges, this type of testing lowers a key barrier to using Bitcoin for high-value settlements. However, for network operators and custodians, the incident reinforces the need to expand the node base and improve routing resilience. Without parallel growth in decentralized infrastructure, sustained institutional use could erode the low-cost, low-latency advantages that currently make Lightning attractive.
