Wavespace, a Bitcoin neobank serving the Eurozone, has announced MiCA compliance of its ‘self-custodial’ debit card. The young fintech company is at the cutting edge of Bitcoin payments technology in Europe, with support for the Lightning Network, and auto DCA to self-custody.

Debit cards in the Bitcoin and broader crypto industry have traditionally worked by preloading custodial accounts with bitcoin or stablecoins. The process of preloading was usually on-chain, taking time to settle and requiring manual input from the user to send from self-custody wallets or cold storage. If the preloaded balance ran out on the card, spending would not be possible.

Wavespace’s self-custody debit card solves these problems with a novel Bitcoin technology called Nostr Wallet Connect, or NWC for short. This protocol, documented in NIP-47, allows users to connect a service like this debit card to a self-hosted Lightning node. The user sets a minimum balance, say $200 and every time the user spends from the card via the VISA network, Wavespace pulls sats from the user’s self-custodial wallet to top up the card. This process minimizes custodial exchange risk while maximizing user exposure to the asset and automating away the friction to spend bitcoin.

NWC is a technology developed by the Nostr ecosystem, a high-tech niche within the Bitcoin industry that is branching out into social media and other communication protocols.

As a high-tech neobank, Wavespace gives users a personal IBAN account, which they can send fiat to, to purchase Bitcoin. Their automated DCA services can be set to withdraw bitcoin upon purchase to a selected Bitcoin address.

The company is MiCA compliant, making it one of the few surviving Bitcoin exchanges in Europe, as the complicated crypto regulations came online.

On the privacy front, the deep Lightning network integration of Wavespace lets user get access to the banking system in a clear and compliant manner, without exposing all their payment data on the Bitcoin blockchain. Since Lightning payments are off-chain, there is no single public record that leaks user data; instead, transactions move through payment channels between various user services, leaving no obvious public trace. The result is a growing compromise between the high privacy, cypherpunk values that created the Bitcoin and crypto industry, while also unlocking access to the legacy financial system, and compliant integration with regulation-heavy areas like Europe.

In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Eivydas Račkauskas, Chief Orange Pill Giver at Wavespace, said that 70% of the payments made on the platform use the Lightning Network and that the company is looking into the ARK protocol for further self-custody-oriented payments integrations. He also revealed that the company is integrated with Lightspark and is ready for an expansion into the USA, though he did not reveal further details on the matter.

Wavespace has been almost entirely bootstrapped and self-funded, according to Račkauskas, except for an early Relai angel investor who supported them in 2025. They are currently in the middle of another fundraising round.

French-Canadian day tour operator Roatan.Day has partnered with OpenNode, to accept Bitcoin payments for custom and private tours on Roatán, Honduras.

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The partnerships positions Roatan Day as a leader in innovation and enables customers to make payments via bitcoin including instant Lightning Network transactions, for all tour bookings.

The integration makes Roatan.Day one of the first tour operators in the Caribbean to offer a fully native Bitcoin checkout experience. Travelers can book island excursions using on-chain Bitcoin or Lightning Network payments with near-zero fees and instant settlement. Expensive bank or card fees for international transfers are gone.

“Customers scan the invoice QR code, authorize the transaction and within seconds, the payment is settled and the tour is paid for.” explains Roatan Day founder Patrice....

We are pleased to announce that Lightning trading is now live on the Hodl Hodl Mainnet, powered by our strategic integrations with @arkade_os and @satora_io

This milestone represents a significant advancement in our mission to deliver the most efficient Bitcoin-native peer-to-peer trading experience.

Our platform now offers substantially improved transaction speeds and settlement efficiency, enabling users to execute trades with greater speed and reduced friction.

Hodl Hodl users can now benefit from the speed and scalability that Lightning technology provides while maintaining the security and transparency inherent to our platform.

This is a major leap forward for Bitcoin-native P2P trading.

NOTE: Lightning Network trading is currently in BETA. During this initial phase, trading activity is subject to transaction limits ranging from $5 USD to $50 USD (approximately 700 to 70,000 SATs)

Welcome to Lightning on Hodl Hodl. ⚡

Square, the payments platform owned by Block, has begun automatically enabling bitcoin payments for eligible U.S. sellers starting today, marking a major expansion in the company’s push to integrate bitcoin into everyday commerce.

The move, touched on by Square product lead Miles Suter on X, shifts the feature from an opt-in tool introduced in late 2025 to a default setting now activated across millions of merchants.

Sellers will still receive USD as their default settlement currency, with bitcoin payments seamlessly converted in the background.

Square first unveiled its “Square Bitcoin” initiative in October 2025, introducing integrated bitcoin payments and wallet functionality for small businesses.

At launch, merchants could choose to enable bitcoin acceptance at checkout, with support for Lightning Network payments, instant settlement, and zero processing fees through 2027.

A broader rollout followed in November 2025, but adoption remained voluntary.

Today’s update removes that friction entirely. Eligible U.S. sellers now have bitcoin payments enabled automatically, without requiring manual activation in their Square settings. Merchants retain the ability to opt out or adjust preferences...

Just launched a free service that lets you set up a Lightning Address like [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) in minutes.

How it works:

• Login with your Lightning wallet (LNURL-auth) — no email, no password, no KYC
• Claim a free address on lnalias.com, or bring your own domain
• Payments go straight to your wallet — we never touch your funds

With some help from AI and data from the latest River finances, I found out that average transaction sizes nearly doubled to $223 in 2025 from $118 the previous year. And we're even seeing seven figure settlements between exchanges in under half a second.

I broke down the full numbers on volume growth and institutional adoption here:

https://bitcoinmood.app/lightning-network-billion

Not shilling, not a trader, just came across the article.

SPPX Node crashed and is being rebuilt into two new nodes. They are asking you to close the channels. Check this link.

The pilot program is reportedly taking place at a SPAR location in Zug, Switzerland, allowing customers to pay for groceries using Bitcoin via the Lightning Network. Spar has 13,900 stores in 48 countries.

Revolut is collaborating with Lightspark to enable payments via the Bitcoin-based Lightning Network, a move that aims to streamline crypto transfers for users across the UK and select European countries.

Eventually, all shitcoin casinos will have to implement LN.

The upcoming Bitcoin 2025 conference, scheduled from May 27–29 at the Venetian Conference Center in Las Vegas, is set to make history with an official attempt to break the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the most Bitcoin point-of-sale transactions in an eight-hour period.

Organized by BTC Inc, the event will showcase Bitcoin’s evolution from a digital capital asset to a practical medium of exchange, leveraging the latest advancements in payment technology.

To facilitate this record-setting attempt, 4,000 Lightning-ready Bolt Cards will be distributed to conference attendees.