Brazilian digital bank Nubank, which has received investment from Warren Buffett, announced on the 25th that it will collaborate with Lightning Network payment solution provider Lightspark, bringing Lightning Network into the Nubank platform to serve its 100 million customers in Latin America.
Lightspark, the Lightning Network payment solution provider, announced on the 25th that it is partnering with Brazilian digital bank Nubank to integrate the Lightning Network into the Nubank platform. The two parties are currently integrating the Lightning Network and developing potential products, which will be disclosed in the future.
In addition, Lightspark also stated that it will integrate the Universal Messaging Address (UMA) standard with the Nubank platform. UMA is a payment system built on the Lightning Network infrastructure, providing users with email-like addresses for transfers, making the transfer experience more convenient.
Thomaz Fortes, CEO of Nubank Cripto, stated that integrating with the Lightning Network is part of Nubank’s plan to provide faster and lower-cost transfers through blockchain.
Since its establishment in 2022 by David Marcus, former President of PayPal and former Head of Cryptocurrency and Payment at Meta, Lightspark has been building Lightning Network infrastructure for enterprises. The company aims to create a permanently online, low-cost, and universal payment network.
Lightspark expressed its pleasure in introducing the Lightning Network to Nubank’s 100 million customers. The integration of Nubank and the Lightning Network is an “important milestone” that will have a “significant impact on the use of the entire network” when it is most needed.
Nubank, founded in 2013, is a digital bank headquartered in Brazil and is the largest digital bank in Latin America. It focuses on pure online banking-related businesses and has over 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, with approximately 92 million customers in Brazil and the remaining 8 million in Mexico and Colombia.
Nubank has received investments from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway twice. Its main investors also include Tencent, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, and Tiger Global Fund.
It is worth noting that Nubank is crypto-friendly and currently offers trading services for 14 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. In May 2022, the company announced the purchase of Bitcoin worth 1% of its asset-liability ratio. It has also partnered with Circle and Polygon.
Considering Nubank’s influence in Latin America, the adoption of the Lightning Network by Nubank could significantly promote the use of cryptocurrencies in Latin America and accelerate the region’s embrace of digital financial payments.